EFFECTIVE BOTTLE FEEDING – TIPS FROM WOODARD WHITETAILS

By: Gail Veley • Sponsored by Kala

Dustin Blosser enters the fawning facility at Woodard Whitetails and kneels beside their latest spring arrivals. Blosser, a young West Virginia native, may only be 24, but his experience growing up on a pig, cattle and whitetail deer farm, combined with his maturity, has found him in the role of Farm Manager since September of 2021. Now, nestled inside a calving hutch, curious, eager and hungry fawns come forward, some nibbling at Blosser’s arms, jeans and well-worn leather boots. Sticking his face down to their level, he rubs his hair on their heads to make them realize they are fine. They are safe. Then, with hands outstretched, he carefully gathers one in his arms and offers a bottle, precision filled with milk, and attached to a one-inch goat kid nipple, to what he hopes is a fawn who grows up to live a very healthy life.

While raising a healthy group of fawns requires vaccinations and meticulous care, among other things, it also requires an extensive knowledge on the best and safest way to bottle feed, should your farm practice bottle feeding. After receiving colostrum from their mother for 24 hours, bottle fed doe fawns are typically pulled and placed on a regimented milking schedule, along with struggling buck fawns and sometimes, a third fawn. While every farm may have it’s preferences on feeding times, Woodard Whitetails suggests bottle feeding at 7 a.m., 11 a.m., 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. for the first seven days. And although fawns will drink as much as you choose to offer, problems can occur if you feed them too much, Blosser explained. “We start out with two to three ounces four times a day during the first week,” he said. “They’ll drink whatever amount you give them and if they have too much, they can bloat or milk can overflow into their rumen, and you can kill them. You want to develop their rumen and they won’t if they aren’t eating and just getting all the milk they can ask for. Another important factor is that from Day One we have water and dirt from their pens inside their hutches to help build their immunities.”

Building a fawn’s immunities along with their desire to eat solid food begins slowly during week two, when the schedule shifts to three times a day at 7 a.m., 1 p.m. and 7 p.m. and more milk is gradually offered to the eventual tune of 12 to 13 ounces per feeding. “By the time week three comes around, we are feeding twice a day at 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. and they are eating more solid food,” Blosser said. “Sometimes they don’t make it all the way through week three because they are getting antsy. We make a practice out of giving them a bottle in whatever will become their permanent pen so that they aren’t losing two things at once while also being put somewhere unfamiliar. If you want to keep them really calm, it’s better this way.” While most fawns adapt immediately to bottle feeding, occasionally there are fawns that don’t. “Rather than putting stress on them by trying to catch them and force the bottle, I just put them back out with Mom and they do fine,” Blosser said. Regardless of how they were raised from birth, Blosser keeps track of each fawn, taking note of their appetite, stool quality or overall health. Should a fawn have diarrhea, Blosser finds that three cc’s of pumpkin baby food usually straightens it out. “You need to watch being too invasive with antibiotics and overcorrecting things,” he emphasized. “It might just kill all the bacteria in their gut. I like to start at the least invasive point and work my way up and see if it’s working first.”

Fawn survival rate at Woodard

Whitetails is usually around 95%, said Owner Henry Woodard. “We may lose 5%. This count includes every fawn whether they were born sick or not. Raising fawns is a labor of love and you are handling them and basically replacing their mother and you become attached. If they are sick and you save them, you felt a bond with them. We wouldn’t have a chance to save them otherwise and bottle feeding can give us the best opportunity to stay on top of things.”