Advice for Animals Confused by Enrichment

Question: Hello I am a sheep, one of many in a small flock. They other day a strange orange object was thrown over the fence. Right now I am just playing with it, pushing it around with me head, I don't know what it is but it sure smells interesting. I am wondering is this thing safe?

Signed, Blackie Sheep

Dear Blackie Sheep

The orange object is a pumpkin and they are very good for you, and your friends, to eat. Pumpkins are loaded with nutrition and are very good for you to eat. They are excellent for your digestive system and even help get rid of some worms (although a proper wormer is still needed to get rid of all worms). Pumpkins are great to help your eyes stay healthy, and the seeds have oils that will help you stay young looking.

A lot of people give pumpkins to their animals in the fall. Even the zoos will give their zoo animals pumpkins, not only are these for the zoo animals to eat, but they provide enrichment in their lives; something new and different!. As you have already discovered they are fun to play with, but you can safely eat them too, they are tasty, full of nutrition, and add variety to your diet.

Question: I am a horse. Recently my owner threw a tire over the fence into my pasture. A tire, really? I am a horse, I don't drive, I don't even have a car, for Pete's sake what is going on here?

Signed, Tired Horse

Dear Tired Horse

Your owner is providing enrichment, the tire is for you to play with, not to put on a car and drive. Sometimes horses get bored and bored horses often develop stable vices such as chewing the fence, or cribbing. The tire is something to play with, you can pick it up in, and try to toss it around. It is pretty hard to find good toys for horses, although some stores sell balls for horses, it can be cheaper for a person to find a tire and see if you enjoy that first before they buy you a more expensive horse toy.

Toys, such as tires and rubber balls, are really good for horses that live alone and don't have a lot to do in the day.

Advice for Deer who are Worried

Question:  Help, I am a mother deer, I leave my fawn everyday while I go to eat, she is only a week old, and today I returned to feed her but she was gone. There is no blood, and I know my little fawn would not have left, what is the matter?

Signed, Doe the Deer

Dear Doe the Deer

You have every right to be worried, your young fawn has probably been taken by a person who thought she was abandoned. Hopefully the person will realize their mistake and return her where they found her. Mother deer, like yourself, often continue to look for their lost fawns for days. Sadly many people do not realize that mother deer regularly leave their fawns like this and the fawns are best left alone.

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Question:  Hi, I am a young fawn, and I am a little worried about being different than the other deer. My mother looks nothing like me, I have white spots, and she does not. Am I sick?

Signed, Little Spotty

Dear Little Spotty

No need to worry little fawn, the spots are for your protection. They make it harder for fawns like you to be seen in the woods. The word for this is camouflage, and to a predator you look like spots of sunlight shining through the trees, rather than a deer. Eventually your spots will grow into a solid pattern like your mother has, by then you will be stronger and faster to run away.

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Question:  Hello, I am a young buck, I have these things growing on my head, I guess they are called antlers. Anyhow I have been itching my antlers lately and one of them fell right off. It scared me, what is happening?

Signed, Buck

Dear Buck

No need to worry, this is normal for male deer. Antlers are different than horns, horns do not fall off, but antlers fall off every fall, or winter. This means you do wont have to carry around a huge set of antlers throughout the winter, but will have them for the rut - which is when mature male deer (bucks like yourself) compete to get does (female deer). In the spring you will quickly start to regrow another set of antlers which will be bigger than the set you had this year. That set of antlers will also fall off, and the cycle will continue.

Further Reading on Wild Deer

How to Rescue an Abandoned Fawn

How and Why Deer Shed their Antlers

Learn how People are trying to Keep Deer out of a Garden