How to introduce protein...

[Gbird]

My dad and I are looking to start feeding protein at his place. As far as I know, the deer never seen it before. How do you get the deer to start eating it? When do you start feeling it? Thanks for the info!


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[AntlerCollector]

Mix it with corn

[breederbuck33]

Set up feeder... Fill feeder... Leave... There is no art to getting them to come to the protein. They smell it and they'll come and go as they want it.

[TKK]

mix with corn - some feed year round and others just during the off season - it is most important that they have it when the rut is over as they are run down and it will help them regain weight

[mudkat]

I had trouble getting my east Texas deer to eat it. one of my feeders was pretty low to the ground and bucks started licking corn off the spinner plate so I put a gravity feed protein feeder in the same spot with corn at the bottom and protein on top and once they started eating it was Katy bar the door!

[JonBoy]

Set up feeder... Fill feeder... Leave... There is no art to getting them to come to the protein. They smell it and they'll come and go as they want it.

Exactly. I put a free-feed protein feeder on my place and they had no problem finding it and figured out really quickly it was something they wanted to eat.

[Huntsman27]

I just started feeding protein this year and I mixed a bag of corn in with the protein and had a big problem with coons. Granted the protein feeder I have is a poor design but I don't think the coons would have been as big of an issue if I didn't add corn to get the deer started. Based on my limited experience with getting deer on protein I would not add corn. None of my corn feeders have feed pens around them but we do have a feed pen around the protein feeder. Within 2 days I had pictures with deer in the feed pen eating protein. I believe I have killed 15 coons off the protein feeder and hardly lost any protein afterwards. You can see the problem I had with coons digging for corn in this thread - http://discussions.texasbowhunter.co...d.php?t=646726

[hooligan]

When we started it just set up the feeder and filled it. Took 3-4 days and they found it. Unfortunately after about a week the cows did too. Now I need new legs and have to move it

[sbushee]

Set up feeder... Fill feeder... Leave... There is no art to getting them to come to the protein. They smell it and they'll come and go as they want it.

This. It actually is that simple

[bowsticker]

You can just fill it and walk away or you can put some on the ground and mix it with corn. Both strategies will work.

[batmaninja]

I just started feeding protein this year and I mixed a bag of corn in with the protein and had a big problem with coons.

I did the same. Once.

Because a coon, crawled up into the feeder. And died. Then rotted. Then kind of calcified around the maggots and protein pellets. It was putrid.

[Walker]

mix with corn - some feed year round and others just during the off season - it is most important that they have it when the rut is over as they are run down and it will help them regain weight

This. They need protien from now until spring green up.

[justin81]

not to hijack the thread, but how much protein will a group of deer go through in 4 months.

[fbchunter]

It isn’t as simple as some on this thread make it to be. It all depends on your area and the deer in it. It’s green almost year around in my area. It’s hit or miss here but what will work is put the feeder out with corn in it first. Get them used to eating what they are used to out of the feeder. Then slowly mix in protein, transition the ratio slowly over time until you are feeding only protein. Even then on really wet years they still won’t eat consistently here. Good luck and please do yourself a favor and don’t fill it full with anything until you know they will eat out of the feeder. This can save you a ton of work if they don’t like your feeder. The deer in my area see a lot of pressure so no doubt this has skewed my experience

[Fishndude]

“Deer, this is protein!! Protein, this is deer!”