Sweet Feed

[BigFish83]

I have read several of the threads on here talking about deer having a sweet tooth which leads me to believe what im going to as is a decent idea. I just wanted to get some first hand knowledge to see if anyone has used it with success.

I had a buddy tell me that he was told to try to use horse sweet feed in his feeders. Has anyone tried to use horse sweet feed for deer?

Thanks in advance for any insight on the topic.

[BowGuy2]

my buddy did this early this year about a week befor the seasonand they ate it pretty good for about 2 weeks and then they kinda just stopped seemed like they got tired of it and just kinda stopped eating it. we put a big pile of it out and they didnt touch it really for a week or 2 after all of the other was gone and lets just say its still there. we are now just putting normal sheld corn out and if we put 100lbs out its gone in about 2-3 days and the other stuff is still there. also the deer love the crush sugar beats they have been eating it like crazy.

[mrbb]

well I have feed deer about everything there is, from donuts to candy
so yes they like sweet things
but I don't think th added cost is worth it
many of the horse feeds are alfalfa based, whick pending the cut and time of yr will make a big difference on how well the deer eat them
but some are actual sugar cubes and the like, so all depends on what exactly type of feed your talking

to me, if I wanted to do anything I would buy a 10+ lb bag of sugar and sprinkle it on top of the corn, heck I would add table salt too
maybe mix the two together, and then ad a few lbs to every 100 lbs of corn
ONLY the salt will be hard on any metal parts of a feeder

you can also buy a bottle of honey/maple syrup or even the strawberry syrup and pour some on the corn too
a bottle will last quite long if you add some once a every few days or so too!
I do that to get bear pictures if I want them
but always get deer eating the corn first!

[BigFish83]

Thanks for the advice guys.. Corn with sweets added seems to be more economical in the end. I was just curious since I had never heard of someone using the sweet horse feed for deer.

[mrbb]

when I used to get old donuts from a few places
my deer used to get picky would eat the sprinkles and chocolate off the tops and leave the rest of the donuts till all the good stuff was gone
so yes they like sweets !

[deerguy10]

I have had mixed success with the sweet feed... I have had deer eat it up within a few days.. i have also had them not touch it and let it dissipate to nothing... i have found corn to be the most consistent and haven't tried the sweet feed for years now...

[MJH]

I tried sweet heifer feed with no luck at all! Hell they walked right thru it! Tried sugar beet pulp last year with minimal usage. Kinda gave up on the idea! I just use Swamp donkey crushed on top of corn. Seems to work the best for me

Mike

[blackbeard]

No luck with sweet feed long ago, stick with corn or apples, nothing brings the in like those too.

[Greybeard11]

I tried mixing sweet feed with corn years ago. They picked the corn out and left the feed.