Dog food for deer?

[ostie82]

I've searched to no avail, so I will just pose the question. I've read that you should find protein pellets that have a protein content of more than 18% in order to benefit your deer herd and antler growth, so could you use some of the high-protein dog food pellets (I feed my dog 21% protein) in your deer feeders? I figure you could mix it 50-50 with corn in order to draw them in and them maybe they would eat it. As you know, the protein pellets for deer are very expensive, so this was be a more economical option. Any thoughts? Is this a bad idea? Thanks.

[kevin1]

Dog food is not nutritionally balanced for the digestive systems of deer, you could end up doing more harm thatn good. Why not just feed them high pro livestock feed?

[snewton_89]

Is high protein livestock feed good for them? I've been thinking about this as I have just been feeding corn.

[haystack]

I don't have much experience with supplemental feed for deer, other than knowing it can be expensive no matter what.

Using dog food would be illegal I do believe. Years ago feeding ruminants any feed that contained animal by-products such as meat meal etc. was banned. I know that's the case with cattle, so some of the cattle feed rations might work for deer.

Whole soybeans seems like it would be a better choice. The cattle protein pellets wouldn't work to well in wet conditions.