Practical experience sharing on raising roe deer in a backyard

The roe deer, commonly known as the roe deer, is a ruminant of the deer family, and is distributed across the mountainous areas and grasslands of northern China. Roe deer are quick to react, lively in temperament, fond of living in groups, and timid and easily startled. Roe deer have no fat on their bodies and enjoy the reputation of “king of lean meat”; their meat is tender and delicious. Roe deer have a wide range of food sources; all kinds of broadleaf tree leaves, wild weeds, crop straw, fruit peels, vegetables and so on are all feed they like to eat.

Roe deer pens are generally built in a sunny, well-ventilated spot, and the environment needs to be dry, hygienic and quiet, achieving warmth in winter and coolness in summer. The pen consists of an exercise yard and a sleeping area. The exercise yard is an open-shed structure, with an outer wall more than 2 m high; to prevent escape, the top of the wall can be covered with brushwood or thatch. The sleeping area is about 1.4 sq m. The overall requirement is that the pen area for each breeding roe deer is no less than 3 sq m, and the pen area for commercial roe deer can be appropriately reduced. Feeding troughs and water troughs are set up inside the pen. Roe deer are not afraid of the cold in winter, but they fear heat in summer, so shade facilities are needed in summer.

The daily ration formula for adult roe deer is: 400 grams of grass meal, 150 grams of bran, 150 grams of cornmeal, 50 grams of soybean cake. Feed salt once every 7 to 10 days? about 10 grams per animal?, and just mix it into the feed. The grass meal consists of tree leaves, millet straw, soybean stalks and so on, and is required to be varied and not moldy. In addition, according to different periods, such as the mating period, gestation period and lactation period, some concentrated feed and animal protein such as blood meal and bone meal should be appropriately increased.

Roe deer drink water at irregular times, so the water trough should be kept filled with water for long periods, but the water should be changed once a day. Roe deer should be fed at fixed times; generally they are fed 4 times a day in summer and 3 times a day in winter, and the feeding amount should be based on eating their fill.

Roe deer have stronger disease resistance than any domestic livestock, but even so, disease prevention must not be relaxed. Pay attention to diet; water troughs and feeding troughs should be cleaned every day, and moldy feed must not be fed.

Clean the pen every day; in summer, often spread dry soil or ash on the ground to keep it dry. Every day, spray the whole area once with 20% caustic soda or quicklime plus 80% water, and refuse to let outsiders enter the pen to visit.