How to Help an Abandoned Fawn

How to Help an Abandoned Fawn

• 1

  Secure the area around the fawn, making sure, for example, that neighbors keep their pets away and other people are respectfully keeping their distance.

• 2

  Check for any visible injuries on the fawn itself, and listen for any distressed "calls" like loud bleating from the fawn. If the fawn is injured, you will need to take it to a veterinarian or wildlife rescue group for treatment.

• 3

  Watch the fawn for 48 hours. Be sure that the fawn really is abandoned before you take it home. The doe only comes around two or three times a day for feedings. If 48 hours have passed and the mother has not returned, you probably do have an orphan on your hands.

• 4

  Call your local wildlife rehabilitation center immediately for advice and instructions on care and feeding.

• 5

  Place fawn in a secure "bed" such as a large plastic tub or box safe from the elements.

• 6

  Learn how to bottle-feed the orphaned fawn, if necessary, and start the prescribed regimen from the wildlife specialist. Most will take to a milk replacer like goat's milk fed with a baby bottle with a rubber nipple.

• 7

  Wipe the deer's "hind quarters" after every feeding to stimulate defecation and urination.

• 8

  Wean from the bottle typically at about 12 weeks of age by introducing deer pellets, water from a bowl and supplement with other forage such as hay, corn or soybeans.