Report Nr. 2920 Husbandry System for Hand Rearing Fawns in Indoor Pens

During the spring of 1979, 16 female white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) fawns were raised in an indoor environmental chamber with minimal space per animal. The purpose of this paper is to present information on raising a large number of healthy fawns with minimal personnel time required. Fawns from this study had an average daily weight gain of 0.15 kg and an average body weight of 20.3 kg at 3.5 months of age. similar to growth rates recorded for outdoor rearing. In this study, preventative medication, hot water cleaning of feeding equipment, daily addition of new bedding material, and a suitable milk substitute succeeded in producing viable and healthy fawns with minimal time invested.