What to feed reindeer? Where to buy food? Expert advice from Forest House. Experience of feeding deer in Russia What to feed deer in winter

In the northern mountains of the Urals, on Far East and in Siberian taiga There live real beauties - northern polar deer. One of the largest animals, they constantly migrate in search of scarce food supplies, in summer - closer to the north, in winter - to the south. Deer are very strong animals, and they easily overcome rivers, mountains, and other obstacles that they encounter along the way.

• Deer are very large animals, the body length of an adult male reaches two meters.

• Venison is the main food of the peoples of the North.

• Reindeer milk is considered the most nutritious and valuable, in addition, it is very tasty.

• The chum, a traditional dwelling, is covered with reindeer skins.

Despite the fact that food is at high northern latitudes not so much, reindeer food is quite varied. In summer, deer eat grass, berries and plant leaves. It is plants that make up the main part of the reindeer's pasture food and give it everything it needs to live.

The leaves of willow and dwarf birch are very valuable and nutritious. It is interesting that deer are quite picky in choosing food: they do not eat damaged branches and dented plants, and while eating they like to bite off individual, younger and fresh leaves.

A real deer delicacy is mushrooms. Deer are very fond of cap mushrooms that grow in the tundra: russula, boletus and aspen mushrooms, as well as flywheels, which ripen in late summer and autumn and can be stored under the snow until early winter.

In winter (and winter accounts for more than half of the year), the reindeer’s diet is more monotonous and consists almost entirely of moss, which it eats up to ten kilograms per day. Resin moss, although called northern moss, is actually a lichen that grows under the snow. Deer get their food by tearing up the snow with their hooves.

In addition to moss, deer also eat other types of lichens growing on tree trunks and branches. Such meager food leads to the fact that deer lack mineral salts, so reindeer herders must give them table salt, as well as bone meal and other types of feed. Wild reindeer do their best to make up for the lack of useful microelements in their own way: they chew their antlers, they even drink salt licks sea ​​water. Reindeer moss grows very slowly (only a few millimeters per year), so deer have to constantly move in search of food.

Reindeer moss, the main food of reindeer, contains a lot of starch. But there is practically no salt and protein in moss, so the herbivorous deer, on occasion, happily feasts on small animals, bird eggs, and even chicks, and mushrooms (which it especially loves).

Reindeer eat a rather monotonous diet, a meager selection of lichens, plants and fungi, moving the same routes year after year, but it is precisely this food that allowed them to become the animals we admire: graceful, graceful and unique.

In winter, lichens do not provide the deer with protein, minerals, or vitamins. In this regard, when feeding on lichens during the snowy period, the deer always strives to eat plants that are partially or completely preserved under the snow in a green state. In the total supply of forage grasses remaining on pastures in winter time, rags predominate, i.e. dry, browned shoots and leaves, and only 5-10% of the total supply of green forage grasses comes from living green shoots. About 50% of the protein is retained in the green parts of wintering plants, and 35-40% in rags. In winter, most sedges and grasses, which make up the bulk of snow reserves, contain 5-6% protein (in absolutely dry matter). With a sufficient supply of snow-covered green food, deer maintain average body condition throughout the entire winter period.

Winter green food includes about 80 plants, but only a few species are of significant importance for deer: certain species of sedges, cereals, forbs and horsetails. Some sedges (water, swollen, roundish, Vilyui) and cotton grass (vaginal, narrow-leaved) preserve up to 50% of the ground organs in a green state under the snow. Deer also eat the browned dry parts of these plants, and in some species of sedges, they also eat the rhizomes. In areas where cotton grass is widespread, they make up up to 90% of the deer’s diet. Young shoots of cotton grass contain up to 4.5% minerals and up to 20% protein. In winter, the nutritional value of sedges decreases somewhat, but the ash content is still quite high. Therefore, they are valuable as a source of enriching the deer’s body with salts.

Cereals are higher in nutritional value than sedges. Their green mass under the snow is preserved by 25-30%, and the aftergrowth - by 50%. The most important ones are the tortuous pike, squat fescue, sheep fescue, and yellow arctoila. Only a few types of forbs are quite important in the diet of deer in winter. These are cat's paw and northern linnaea. The rhizomes of the three-leaf and marsh cinquefoil are well eaten by deer.

Horsetails are readily eaten by deer in both green and brown states. The greatest practical importance for reindeer husbandry as winter green fodder are marsh and reed horsetails, as well as wintering and Komarova.

The preserved remains of green plants, although they have a lower nutritional value than in summer, but in comparison with the main food of deer - moss - contain 3-4 times more protein, 2-3 times more minerals and are richer in vitamins. The presence of such plants under the snow is important, as it makes it possible to replenish the deer’s body with protein, minerals and vitamins.

Summer green food. Green plants, as the main pasture food for reindeer, supply the body with all the necessary nutrients and vitamins. In summer, when choosing food, deer have a wide range of plants: out of 318 species of reindeer food plants, 268, or 84%, are summer food.

Deer most readily eat cereals, sedges, and the foliage of shrubs - various types willows and dwarf birch. Particularly valuable for them in terms of food are such plants as watchwort, knotweed, groundsel, lagotis, astragalus, bluegrass, foxtail, reed grass, arctophila, and horsetails. The leaves of tundra willows and dwarf birch are of greatest value. Deer are always very picky in their choice of food. They usually do not touch dented or broken plants, but select and bite individual leaves and tops of stems and shoots of their favorite, freshest, young plants. From the assortment available on the pasture, deer usually choose those plants that are in the phase of leafing out, throwing out shoots, budding and flowering, always preferring fresh young greens. A plant of the same species is eaten by deer more or less willingly, depending on the phase of its development. Since spring, deer readily eat sedges and grasses, but after flowering, when the leaves and stems become coarser, the consumption of these plants sharply decreases. In autumn, when with the onset of cold weather the foliage of the bushes falls off. The importance of monocots in deer nutrition is increasing again.

Shrubs. The leaves of shrubs, especially willows and birches, are of great importance in the diet of deer. By content nutrients the leaves of the bushes are of great feed value. Deer eat them throughout the growing season until leaf fall. In some areas of reindeer husbandry, bush food accounts for up to 80% of all food eaten in summer. Willows and birches are widespread in reindeer herding areas.

In terms of nutritional value, willows come first: gray, shaggy, and spear-shaped.

Gray or glaucous willow widespread in tundra, forest-tundra and mountainous regions; forms extensive thickets in floodplains and in low areas of the tundra. East of the Lena River, this willow is less common. Gray willow leaves are readily eaten by deer throughout the summer; they remain tender until leaf fall and fall late. Gray willow reaches 1.5 m in height, has dark brown branches with gray-shaggy summer shoots, leaves are narrowed at both ends, entire-edge, densely grayish tomentose above, bluish below. Flower catkins develop later than leaves.

Shaggy willow, with the exception of the Far East, is found everywhere in river valleys along watersheds. Deer eat leaves and young shoots. Reaches 1.1 m in height, the branches are thick, knotty, old ones are brown, young ones are gray felt. Blooms before the leaves bloom. The leaves usually last until the snow.

spear willow– a widespread shrub, found in the form of thickets in river valleys (forming thickets along rivers and streams), as well as among tundras on watersheds. The bushes reach 1.8 m in height; branches are dark brown, young shoots are yellowish, pubescent. The leaves are thin, with a finely serrated edge, dull green. Blooms before leaves appear.

Depending on the area, willows such as iron, tree-like, Lapp, beautiful, Krylova, Sakhalin, Korean.

The leaves of birches bloom later than those of willows, and they become coarser earlier. In this regard, in the second half of the growing season, their palatability decreases. Birch leaves are characterized by a high content of nutrients and minerals, with dwarf birch, lean birch, and Midendorff birch being of greatest importance in the diet of deer.

Dwarf birch often found in the southern tundra and forest-tundra, entering the forest zone. Widely distributed in the western regions Far North, to the east of the Yenisei its massifs are thinning out. Its leaves are well eaten by deer.

Mushrooms. In the regions of the Far North, when grazing deer, some cap mushrooms (boletus, aspen, cap mushroom, moss cap, russula, etc.) are of no small importance as food. Deer greedily eat mushrooms that appear in the tundra and forest-tundra in the second half of summer and autumn. Even early winter deer dig out dried or slimy remains of mushrooms from under the snow.

Mushrooms contain a significant amount of nitrogenous substances (up to 45% of absolutely dry matter), from 9 to 17% carbohydrates and 5-10% ash. Mushrooms are also rich in vitamins; they contain a significant amount of vitamin A, vitamins from group B, vitamins C, D and PP are found in them. Mushrooms are characterized by a significant fiber content, mostly in the range of 20-30%, and mushroom fiber is poorly digested. Mushrooms contain from 84 to 93% water. Mushrooms increase the digestibility of other feeds due to high content enzymes. The reasons for deer's addiction to eating mushrooms have not been studied. It is believed that this is due to the presence of significant amounts of nitrogenous substances and vitamins in the rough.

The yield of mushrooms depends on weather conditions and varies from year to year from 10 to 100 kg/ha. There are more mushrooms in the taiga zone and forest-tundra; in the Arctic and mountain tundras there are fewer of them.

Concentrated feed. Deer eat various grain feeds rich in carbohydrates (cereal grains). You can successfully feed deer oats, barley, corn and other cereal grains in flattened or crushed form. Deer readily eat grain processing products - bran, rye flour, crackers, baked bread, etc. On average, the digestibility and nutritional value of grain feed for deer do not differ significantly in comparison with other farm animals.

Animal feed such as fish and meat and bone meal is well eaten and used by reindeer. Deer are especially willing to eat fishmeal, which is used more often than other feeds for feeding.

Fishmeal is highly valued in reindeer husbandry because it is a local feed and contains in a small volume all the elements necessary for nutrition that are missing in winter pasture feed. Feeding with fishmeal stimulates the eating of moss. The nutritional value of fishmeal for deer is estimated at 75-80 feed units. per 100 kg of feed, containing 43-45% digestible protein.

Suitable for feeding deer meat and bone meal, prepared in areas where marine hunting is developed Magadan region from fat production waste, meat and bones of sea animals.

Compound feed can also be used to feed deer. Feeding horse feed leads to a rapid decrease in the performance of the deer, since its body is not adapted to digest this type of feed; The chewing regime and the activity of the stomach (rumen) are disrupted when feeding with this compound feed. The deer is forced to chew the rough parts of the food more often and longer, which linger longer in the stomach. When feeding mixed feed, deer require approximately twice as much more drinking water (up to 3-4 liters per day) than when feeding moss. Adding 1 kg of mixed feed to 2 kg of reindeer moss ensures complete feeding of the deer and does not cause disruption of the digestive tract.

The nutritional value of compound feed is estimated for deer at 60-66 feed units per 100 kg of feed, i.e. it is slightly lower than according to tabular data for other farm animals.

Concentrated feed is important for feeding sled reindeer during periods of intense work in transport. Deer quickly become accustomed to eating concentrates, especially fishmeal.

Roughage. Hay is eaten by deer much worse than fresh green food. When given plenty of hay, deer eat about 0.3-0.5 kg per day, in rare cases up to 1 kg. The palatability of hay depends on its botanical composition and harvesting time. Deer prefer small-grass hay made from legumes, grasses and forbs, harvested no later than the flowering period. The reason why deer eat hay poorly lies in the inability of its stomach to process large masses of dry roughage. Deer eat hay cuttings no better than hay, leaving a lot of food in the leftovers, but they eat hay meal completely.

The nutritional value of deer hay is estimated at 40-50 feed units per 100 kg of feed, and willow leaf hay is 74 feed units with 5-8% digestible protein.

When mixed with reindeer moss, the digestibility and nutritional value of hay are slightly increased.

Birch and willow brooms can be successfully used as roughage. Deer readily eat brooms prepared at the end of June-July. They need to be dried in the shade and stored in embryos. They give 0.3-0.5 kg per head per day.

Mineral feed. When feeding reindeer moss and eating snow instead drinking water deer often experience mineral starvation. Therefore, mineral supplements are necessary. In some areas (Karelian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic), lack of mineral nutrition causes illness in 7-8 month old calves in winter - weakness appears, and then paralysis of the hind limbs.

Giving table salt, ash with the addition of microelements (copper sulfate and cobalt chloride) prevents the disease.

Of the mineral feeds, table salt and bone meal are the most important. It is absolutely necessary to give table salt to all deer in winter, during the period of feeding with lichen food. Adding salt improves the deer's appetite and makes them search for pasture food more intensively. When feeding with salt, the digestibility of lichen food and the digestibility of nitrogenous substances slightly increase. As a result, deer receiving table salt in winter usually retain satisfactory fatness by spring, and pregnant queens produce stronger, normally developed offspring.

Salt is fed to deer in ground form (table salt) or rock salt (lick). You can use brine - the brine remaining after salting the fish. Brine contains nitrogenous substances. It is frozen and given in the form of lumps that the animals lick. Deer should be given salt at a rate of at least 5-6g per head per day. At a minimum, salt should be given during the most difficult grazing period - from February to May.

Description of work

Reindeer get their food in harsh conditions The Arctic, where snow cover makes access to food difficult, and the nutritional characteristics of the food do not always satisfy the body's needs. This is the reason for the specialization of nutrition by season on those feeds that at other times lack fats, vitamins and salts, as well as the reason for sharp fluctuations in the value muscle mass and the content of salts and vitamins in the body. Having subjugated the reindeer, man took care of satisfying its needs. How better person knew them, the more successfully he bred deer and received more products. Folk school Reindeer husbandry is largely the science of how to feed reindeer. In this direction, she has accumulated a number of observations that are also of theoretical interest.

Content

Introduction…………..……………………………………………………………3
Features of the structure of the digestive organs, absorption of nutrients………………………………………………………..4
Nutrient requirements………………7
Nutritional assessment. Feed digestibility……..8
Characteristics of feed…………………………….…10
Conclusion…………………………………………………………….……19
References………………………………….………...20

Deer. Deer do not abandon their offspring. They often hide their young, so if you happen to encounter a fawn in the field, do not try to help it until you are sure that its mother has died. If this is your first time adopting a fawn, it will be helpful to consider the following initial guidelines. If your yard is not fenced, install a fence with a perimeter of approximately 15 m. This area will be quite enough for a child. It is better to use metal poles, which are easy to install and dismantle, and use metal mesh for fencing.

It is advisable that there are trees and shrubs inside the fenced space. As the fawn grows, it will gradually be able to reach the lower branches and will soon begin to feast on green leaves.

The dwelling can be built from plywood, fencing it on three sides. Another sheet of plywood should be placed on the roof and covered with roofing felt on top to prevent water from penetrating. The matter remains small front door- and here is a ready-made pen for the fawn. There should always be fresh water and a small piece of salt lick in the pen.

Feeding a fawn is not difficult. Basically, this is any type of milk with the addition of milk substitutes and various nutritional mixtures. It is best to feed using a half-liter bottle. The pre-prepared nutritional mixture is stored in the refrigerator, and before use it must be placed in hot water for heating. At first, you need to strictly adhere to the daily five feedings, then gradually reduce their number as the fawn begins to nibble on grass and leaves, and also discovers an interest in the grain food offered. By this time, the nutritional mixture can be given in a feeder, pouring it on top of a slice of wheat bread. The fawn will start by sucking the milk mixture from the bread and will then get used to eating any food this way.

From a cluster of flies better protection are bamboo curtains that darken specific place, where deer hide from annoying insects. You can lubricate the animal with a special protective solution, but you must first consult a specialist. Fawns are incredibly attached to people and will follow you around like dogs. They love delicacies - carrots, apples, ground nuts, marshmallow root. The further fate of the animal will be good if it is raised in the area where it was picked up and where its relatives are found. Then by the time of release the deer will be sufficiently acclimatized. If there are others in the area deer, he will definitely find them. Sometimes young deer experience diarrhea - a consequence of poor diet. "¦Do not try to treat animals yourself with home-grown remedies, do not give medicines at random. It is better to contact a veterinarian, he will prescribe the necessary remedy.

Hickman M., Guy M. Caring for wild birds and fur-bearing animals. - M.: Lesn. industry - 87 p.

The basis of the winter diet of reindeer are various feeding lichens united common name- reindeer moss.

Main and very useful property This food is that it almost does not change its nutritional value according to the seasons of the year and is equally well absorbed by deer both in winter and in the snowless period of the year.

By chemical composition moss is a carbohydrate food and in nutritional value can be equal to potatoes. It is believed that 100 kg of raw moss contains 25-29 kg of feed units. The disadvantage of this food is the extremely low content of digestible protein and minerals absorbed by the body.

When grazing on moss pastures (pine and larch dry forests, mountain tundra), deer feel a greater need for minerals. Therefore, in winter and especially towards spring, deer greedily eat human urine in the snow, lick fish barrels, and gnaw harnesses made of rawhide, bone and antler, which often causes oral disease.

As a result of mineral deficiency in the spring, deer experience metabolic disorders, exhaustion, weakened bones, and if carelessly caught with a lasso in the spring, bone fractures often occur.

To replenish the diet with minerals in winter and spring, it is recommended to feed deer rock salt, enriched with phosphorus and calcium salts. The best view winter mineral feeding is mineral licks produced by the Artemovsk salt mine.

Such licks are produced in the form of briquettes (1.5-2.0 kg) and contain 75% table salt and 25% phosphorus-calcium components. In addition, the licks contain trace elements: iron, copper, cobalt, manganese, iodine and others (in proven beneficial compounds and preventive doses).

If there are no such licks, the deer should be given coarse rock or regular table salt mixed with stove ash. Fertilizing with salt should begin in mid-winter (from January 15-25 to February 1), when lowland pastures rich in snow-green plants become inaccessible due to deep and dense snow.

Feeding continues throughout the winter and the calving period until green vegetation appears and the deer stop coming to the feeders. At least 5 g of salt per day per deer is required throughout the entire period. Thus, a herd of 2000 main herd of deer consumes 10 kg of salt or briquettes per day or about a ton for the entire period.

Salt is given to deer in feeders with long, dense boardwalks and sides to prevent spillage. Such feeders are convenient because they are not tipped over by deer, and when the herd moves, they can be easily transported to a new pasture. For a herd of 2000 deer, you need to have 3-4 feeders, which are evenly placed along the herd’s daily route.

If there are not enough feeders, a crowd appears around them; strong deer do not allow young animals and weak deer to approach them, i.e., precisely those animals that especially need mineral feeding.

When transferring deer to a fresh area, feeders with salt are transported ahead of the herd, making a road through the virgin soil, and the deer are especially willing to follow. Upon arrival at the site, the feeders are transported throughout the pasture in such a way that they are evenly distributed throughout the entire area.

If you put it in the feeder a large number of salt and for several days at once, then part of it is lost - the deer scatter the salt on the ground. Therefore, it is recommended to pour a 1-2-day supply into the feeders and replenish it as you feed.

In order to accustom deer to mineral feeding, no special techniques are required.. As soon as the behavior of the deer reveals that they have a need for mineral salts, feeders are installed at the grazing site. Within the first 2-3 days, most deer will begin to regularly approach and lick the salt bricks.

Feeding with salt strengthens the body of deer and promotes good fetal development in pregnant females. Deer that regularly receive mineral supplements have an improved appetite, they dig up and eat food more energetically, which is very important for maintaining normal body condition of females before the calving period.

In herds where salt feeding is regularly carried out, the barrenness of the females sharply decreases, the number of perastels decreases and stillbirths calves, the waste of calves in the first days of life is reduced, new horns in young animals grow faster, and the coat is shiny and gives the impression of being lubricated with fat, diseases are reduced. Therefore, mineral feeding is now a mandatory method of improving winter feeding of deer.

In winter and spring, deer readily eat protein supplements and react very positively to it.. On the Kola Peninsula, herds of transport reindeer did not lose fatness and performance for a long time when 250 g of fishmeal per reindeer was given daily. Special experience in selective feeding of weak females during the pre-calving period gave a positive result: with minimal labor and protein feed, female females spread normally and raised calves.

Protein feeding becomes especially important when unfavorable conditions winter and spring grazing in some years. As a result of the high height and density of snow cover, icy formations on the soil and snow surface, large areas of spring pastures become inaccessible to deer. In such areas, the animals' fatness sharply decreases and the weakest deer begin to die from exhaustion.

Under these conditions, even an insignificant addition of protein substances to pasture feed has a great positive effect, dramatically improving general state body and preventing loss of live weight. Fish and meat and bone meal, fish waste, animal feed, etc. can be used as a protein supplement.

The cheapest way is to feed deer with fish waste (heads and entrails) mixed with a small amount of feed for large animals. cattle. By eating 3-4 kg of this mixture per day during critical periods of spring food shortage, animals more energetically search for and dig up pasture food; even short-term feeding helps to avoid the spring loss of deer.

They very quickly get used to feeding with fishmeal, fish waste and other protein feeds and, as soon as the feed is delivered to the herd, they quickly gather at the feeders.

Concentrated feed can be delivered to herds by planes and helicopters. Such feeding in the herds of the Malozemelskaya tundra showed that even significant costs for air transport are fully recouped by the preservation of tens and hundreds of deer, promptly supported during the critical period of unavailability of pasture feed.

Works recent years The biological and economic efficiency of introducing urea and other feed protein substitutes into the diet of deer has been revealed. Enrichment of the usual winter-spring mineral fertilizing with urea at the rate of 10-15 g per deer per day helps maintain body condition, accelerate the molting process, better growth horns

Calves from mothers fed with urea are better developed, have greater live weight and increased vitality compared to calves whose mothers did not receive urea.

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Rokkol 07-11-2006 06:55

Two deer from the city park hang out at night and even sleep right next to the entrance and garage. They are almost not afraid, they allow you to approach within 10 meters or less. By nightfall I give them a piece of salted bread and a couple of apples. They eat it. I tried to give potatoes, carrots, cabbage - they ignored it and didn’t eat it. What else should I give them? What do they like? There is no snow yet and they have enough green grass for now.

Chuck13 07-11-2006 07:07

Sierra SPBT, Game King. These are bullets.
But if you’re serious, don’t, it’s better to drive them away, for their own good.
“We are responsible for those we have tamed...” /c/

Rokkol 07-11-2006 18:52

Yes, I have a caliber for deer too. But I'm not a hunter. So, I'm a shooting enthusiast.

You are absolutely right about domestication. I agree. And it is not because of me that the “beautiful” deer graze near my house. A couple of oak trees grow near the house. And this year there is an incredible harvest of acorns and everything is strewn with them. So they come to eat and at the same time sleep next to them. I wouldn’t pay attention to them. But there were a lot of deer in my area of ​​the city and the authorities sold off a number of permits to hunters to shoot them with bows and crossbows. They'll kill them in the park! So I want to hold them longer. Yes, they are full. Today, apart from bread and one apple, nothing else was touched. And during the day they still go to the park to sleep. If only I could write on their side that “I am not a deer. I am a cow” and they would definitely not be touched...

YANKEE 11-11-2006 04:01

Ignore them, for their own good.
Let them eat the acorns, but don’t pamper them with human food.

Rokkol 15-11-2006 20:22

It's all over and there is no longer a problem - what to feed the deer. They shot them one by one... First the female, and on the second day the horned one. And I saw the “hunter”. He sat under a bush at the edge of the clearing and “with his antlers” knocked on the deer in his hand, beckoning. He made signs for me to go quietly and not interfere. It's a pity for the beautiful deer, but such is our vile life.
And the hunters are not to blame. These are people who are sick with their Huntingphilia. They don’t need meat, but the process itself. What to take from them! We should feel sorry for them too. Lonely orderlies-predators in the forest and in the city.

YANKEE 16-11-2006 05:13

What, you can hunt near your home?
In Connecticut, if memory serves, 500 yards away, that is, practically nowhere in the places where I live.
Hunting is hunting, the most ancient instinct, and there are too many deer, the other day I was driving to NY, during an hour and a half journey I saw eight downed deer.
When there are a lot of them, they start to get sick, lime desiz from the ban on hunting and off we go.

Rokkol 16-11-2006 05:37

My street runs parallel to a half-abandoned Railway. Behind it is a stream and again a street. Between the stream and the railway there is a paved road for bicycles, dogs and pedestrians. And everything was overgrown with bushes, grass, trees. That's where they lived. A family with young fawns. Well, all of them from the bow.
Yes, in principle everything is correct. This year they were allowed to shoot them in the city with bows. It’s just human nature (mine) to be greedy and protest... They were beautiful. They ate apples from the apple tree on the side of the road together. They are on one side, and I am on the other. When I left, I shook the apple tree with it. It's just humanly pathetic.
Nothing in next year new ones will start. The place will not be empty.