Consequences of Feeding Deer in Winter

It may be tempting to feed deer to “help” them through the winter. However, feeding deer during the winter or other times of the year is unnecessary, prohibited in New York, and can have negative consequences for deer, your neighbors, and surrounding wildlife habitat.  

During the winter, deer primarily rely on woody and evergreen vegetation (collectively known as woody browse) for their daily nutritional and metabolic needs. The digestive enzymes in a deer’s stomach change in the winter to better digest this browse. If deer are provided with unnatural food sources such as corn or hay after this change in diet has occurred, it can result in grain overload disease or Clostridium overgrowth because they can’t digest the food properly. Both diseases can result in the rapid illness and death of deer in winter.  

Gathering of deer around artificial feeding sites can increase the risk of spreading chronic wasting disease (CWD). An infected deer will shed CWD prions in its saliva directly on the food, which can infect any other deer that feed from the same site. Deer gathered at these sites can also increase the risk for deer-vehicle collisions and deer-related damage to landscape plantings, orchards, and tree farms.

Habitat improvement, especially the creation and promotion of early successional habitat, is the best way to ensure that deer and other species of wildlife have plenty to eat all year and avoids the negative consequences of feeding deer.