This morning Lucy the Puggle dog and I were in the office when we noticed a deer in the front yard. Luckily we have a tall fence, and ever since we installed it a few years ago, the deer {knock on wood} have not tried to hop it.
Even though we live in suburbia, daily deer sightings in our neighborhood are very normal. So normal in fact, Lucy doesn’t even bark at them anymore. She just watches them through the front window as if she’s watching the wildlife channel or something.
I don’t know about you, but I cannot resist feeding them.
So when I see deer in the front yard, I toss out some fruits and vegetables.
I figure it’s cheaper than going to the zoo.
Isn’t she pretty? How could you not want to feed her?
Yum Yum!
The deer in our neighborhood are so confident, they’ll even come up to your front porch.
Maybe I should try and teach them how to ring the doorbell. Now that would be hilarious! Can you imagine the HH answering the door to find a deer there wanting a snack? It’s bad enough he freaks out when solicitors come by, but a deer? That would be total awesome sauce.
Oh look, a carrot. I didn’t know they grew above ground.
Yep, living in the burbs does have it’s perks. 😉
How about you?
Do you have wildlife roaming the streets where you live? Do you feed them?
Mavis wants to know.
Oh, and if you are looking for ways to keep deer out of your garden, check out my post on 10 Ways to Keep Deer Out of Your Garden. It’s pretty helpful. Just remember, Rule #1 – Don’t feed them. 🙂
Kristen Bailey says
I live in the foothills in Colorado. We have a lot of dear and elk. I had a herd of 75 elk move through my yard a couple days ago. It’s illegal to feed deer and elk here. It causes them to break their normal patterns of movement and come to the same place at the same time regularly. This attracts predators. In our area that means mountain lions, and attracting a mountain lion to your yard is not good, especially if you have a dog or children. It’s bad news for adults too. There are good reasons for laws about feeding wildlife, it is a good idea to find out what they are in whatever area you live in.
I use black mesh netting to protect the plants that the deer like. It’s not very noticeable, and it’s not harmful.
Judy says
yes their beautiful but no I don’t feed them.. they will start bring all their kin in and eventually they will find a way to scale your fence… and once they do.. you’ll never get them out.. they are repeat offenders…lol
April Myers says
Hubby didn’t close the door all the way shut one night, and we woke up in the morning to a deer strolling around the house. It went downstairs even… very calmly! Hubby lured it out with a butterfingers bar. I had no idea they even liked them. It was very tame. Sadly, we saw it dead on the road a few weeks later. Pretty sure it was the same one. We live on a busy highway. It was a magical way to start the day, or at least very exciting. Not as exciting was when I came out my bedroom door to have a bat flying straight at me. But that’s another tale of woe.
caryl says
Sorry Mavis, but I think you are completely off your rocker for feeding (i.e. ATTRACTING) deer anywhere near a garden. You are incredibly lucky that they haven’t (YET) found your veggies, but talk about an open invitation! (to both your own garden and your neighbor’s gardens). How tall is your fence? I’m pretty sure they can easily clear a 6 foot fence….and they can wipe out a garden overnight!
ps If the deer are starving that would be one thing — but that looks like one pretty fat deer!
Lisa says
O.M.G! You are JUST like my husband!!! I’ve found him leaving boiled eggs out for the raccoons and nuts for the squirrels. However, I go out and grab the food and give him a scolding! 🙂
Mavis Butterfield says
Ha! I leave peanuts out for the squirrels for Christmas. 🙂
Sarah says
We live out by Tiger Mountain and have tons of wildlife. Unlike you, I do not have a big fence to protect my garden. It is just fenced off with some hip height bird mesh fence. Like you though, I feed our wildlife various foods and food blocks…rabbits, squirrels, chipmunks, deer, porcupine, etc….but you know what? They have all left my garden alone– a garden that they could easily get into to.
Bill Dungan says
Hey, Mavis. Apparently your idea to keep those deer out of your garden is to feed them in your front yard. LOL Whatever works!! I’ve read that lavender bushes help keep deer, raccoons, and possums out of the garden, too, but haven’t been able to varify that. Guess they don’t like the GOOD smelling stuff.
Lisa says
We don’t have them in our yard, but we saw two young bucks grazing off the side of the highway the other day. I had never seen bucks before, only does and fawns. They were so close to us we could see their velvety antlers.
My late mother-in-law used to throw food scraps over the deck railing to the deer. One day there was a doe and her fawn. The baby picked up the cantaloupe rind, and mama deer just grabbed it out of baby’s mouth! The deer learned that there weren’t hunters in the country club, and would graze on the golf course during hunting season.
I don’t feed wildlife in my yard. I used to feed birds, but with the open field behind us I worried the spilled (or spit out) seeds would draw mice and other vermin. I have my own “wildlife” in three dogs, two cats (one is a kitten), two rats and a Guinea pig. That’s enough to feed and clean up after, and I only have to keep the dog’s ball out of the garden.
Mary Ann says
Nice to see a rat owner here! I started the Rat & Mouse Club of America back in 1995. Love them!
Mary Ann says
You’re my kind of person, Mavis! I’m a total softy for all animals. We just don’t live in an area with much wildlife, sadly, or there would be food out there for them all the time. Right now, I have to be content feeding the birds and opossums (and my pet 9 year old Eastern Fox Squirrel!). Oh, and the neighborhood cats that come to my back door almost every day.
Dale Ann says
Plenty of Whitetail deer roaming the yards here…
My front and back yard are now completely fenced. They were eating everything…trees, bushes, perennials, garden vegetables (including pepper, tomato, and potato plants), even started chewing on the house siding. A very good friend of ours has told us that the deer in his area are now so used to humans, they stomp, blow, and threaten to charge him or others when they try to leave or enter their home.
I don’t feed them for a number of reasons (though our neighbors have fed them)…1) Because they do eat or heavily taste nearly everything that may appear to be possible food (including house siding). 2) It teaches them to forage in yards instead of their natural habitat, putting them in higher danger of getting hit by a vehicle on the roads they cross often (fresh killed deer are now found dead along the roads here nearly every week, including the very young fawns). 3) Deer here carry ticks, including those that have Lymes Disease. These ticks drop off wherever deer roam, and if they are in yards, children, adults, and pets have a greater chance of coming in contact with disease carrying ticks. (We also saw first hand how the deer here are heavily covered in lice when we freed one that had tried to jump the fence but caught her leg instead.)
Cecily says
I don’t see deer here but I do see coyotes on a weekly basis. I don’t want them around and I don’t feed them intentionally. I have seen them eating apples from my trees and of course I have lost several chickens and a cat to them. They are very bold and once went after my little rat terrier while I was standing just twenty feet away. Animals that are used to people can be dangerous. A kick from a deer can cause serious damage, so, I think its best to view wildlife in their natural habitat.
Anna says
I live out in the country, so deer are pretty common. There’s currently a herd with two big bucks, a young buck, a doe, and a fawn that’s been hanging out in my area. Mainly, they just come through and eat weeds in the lawn (and sometimes nibble the hostas in my front flower garden), but I do worry about them getting into the vegetable garden. So far, the fence I built has kept them out, but having deer around means I can’t plant as many fruit trees as I would like without a lot of planning beforehand — they would happily nibble young apple trees almost to the ground! Even though I love watching the deer, I never hesitate to shout at them to scare them away when I think they’re plotting garden destruction.
Stacey says
Here in the high Arizona desert, we see a lot of lizards, black widows, and coyotes. The coyotes have become so bold that I saw one heading through our little town in the middle of the day. They got our neighbor’s small dog, and attacked another neighbor’s not-so-small dog. On the bright side, a couple of days ago we were driving home and got to watch a family of quail cross the road, and they looked just like they do in the Bambi movie. We also occasionally see a roadrunner or herd of antelope.
Karen says
We have a variety of birds, squirrels, possum, and racoons. There is something that digs into our compost every night and leaves a BIG hole. I am not sure who it is but I hope to find out some day. I do have a little feeder for the squirrels on the back fence that hold dried corn cobs, but it attracts the rats too. The squirrels like shaking fruit off my trees so I just figure I have to share. In the front, we have a bird feeder. It is outside the master bedroom window and we have a cat tree in the window. We call that “Cat TV” because the kitties get very excited about the birds out there! I am guilty of feeding the outside critters. They are guilty of stealing some fruit and veggies. We all share and get along.
baccarat says
Best you can do is talk to people !