Many people, especially hunters, try to feed deer in winter to keep them healthy. Sadly, it’s not good for them. Becoming dependent on humans is bad, but celery can make deer bloated.
Too much human food will also cause the deer to starve because they lack the necessary nutrients. Do deer eat celery?
Deer are not picky eaters so they will eat celery when it’s available. Unfortunately, eating too much celery can be detrimental to their health because celery contains no nutritional value for a deer. If they fill up with too much food that has no nutritional value, they can become sick and die even with a full stomach.
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Can Deer Eat Celery
Deer can technically eat celery. However, they shouldn’t because it’s terrible for them. Usually, deer eat bark, grasses, berries, nuts, seeds, or even mushrooms.
On rare occasions, deer have even been spotted eating small birds and animals, which they normally only do when their bodies lack sufficient protein or calcium.
Deer teeth can handle the celery. In fact, if you have a garden and don’t put up proper deer deterrent, they will wander right in and chew up most of what you have on hand, including celery.
Some food plants like garlic and onions smell harmful or gross to the deer, but most other garden crops are worth snacking on.
Deer stomachs can digest celery. Stomach acid is impressive stuff, and a deer can process bark, so celery is no challenge, but it provides no nutrition and takes up space.
According to SasUpenn, “Deer have a four-chambered stomach. The first chamber, called the rumen, is for storage. The rumen allows for the deer to gather a lot of food at once and then digest it later. The deer bring the food back up into their mouth and chew it again.”
Essentially, deer will eat whatever they come across that seems like food and store it for later processing. If a deer fills their stomach too much or too often with non-foods that don’t provide any nutritional value, the deer will become sick and weak.
Sadly, if the behavior continues, the deer will starve and die even with a full stomach. For the deer, it is a lot like it would feel for a human trying to eat only grass or cardboard.
Do Deer Like Celery
Deer appear to like celery a lot. Given the opportunity, they will get into your garden and eat celery all the way down to the ground. However, their favorite foods are usually nuts.
In the fall, deer prefer acorns, but they also love to eat pecans, hickory nuts, and beechnuts. Likewise, deer seem especially fond of alfalfa.
However, wild deer are easily lured by backyard gardens and humans who feed them bad foods like corn, lettuces, table scraps, apples, and of course, celery.
Does Celery Grow Wild In Deer Habitats
Celery is not a natural food source for deer in the US. It is an imported plant that was brought over for cultivations by settlers who enjoyed eating it.
As a result, deer don’t typically encounter celery unless it’s in a human garden or farm.
According to Aggie-Horticulture, “Wild celery grows in wet places over Europe, the Mediterranean lands, Asia Minor, the Caucasus, and southeastward toward the Himalayas. It is believed to have originated in the Mediterranean area. Chinese writings of the 5th century after Christ mention it.”
Will Deer Eat Celery
Deer will vigorously eat celery and very much to their detriment. A rapid change in diet from the natural leaves and nuts to fermentable carbohydrates and human salad ingredients like lettuces and celery is deadly to deer.
Especially the fermentables can cause bloat and acidosis, which kill the deer painfully.
Do Dear Eat Celery Stalks
The extended column of celery, known as the stalk, has fibrous strings and moist crunchy flesh. The flavor and texture are pleasant to humans, and doubtless, deer also enjoy it.
Not only will deer eat celery stalks, but they all utterly destroy the stalks down to the ground.
Do Deer Eat Celery Leaves
Celery leaves are tasty. Moreover, they are the closest part of the plant to a deer’s natural food source, which involves a lot of leaves, albeit from other types of plants.
A deer will eat the leaves on a celery plant quite happily.
Do Deer Eat Celery Plants
Regrettably, deer appear to enjoy celery. They will eat all the parts of the plant they can reach easily.
Practically speaking, deer are not good diggers, so they may leave the roots intact but will otherwise eat all of the exposed parts of the plant right down to the surface of the ground.
Helpful Tips To Know If Deer Eat Celery
Deer browse and eat many foods naturally, such as plant leaves, bark, berries, and nuts. Unfortunately, they do not seem to have much innate sense of when to stop. Unless food smells harmful to them, like garlic, the deer will eat.
Here are more helpful tips to know if deer eat celery.
- It is illegal to feed deer in some areas because of the problems it can cause for the animals. However, people are generally allowed to plant whatever they like. If you want to help your local deer stay healthy, skip the celery and plant pokeweed, sumac, or healthy, nut-bearing trees that they can eat from as they grow. By doing this, you avoid breaking the law and damaging the deer.
- Deer have very low food standards and will eat most vegetables, fruits, and grains they come across. Regrettably, they are willing to eat almost anything that smells food-like to the point where it makes them sick. In nature, a deer who finds a few apples or some accidentally planted celery will get an unnecessary but pleasant treat. Small amounts won’t harm them. However, in a human garden, farm, or when fed intentionally by otherwise well-meaning humans, they can easily have so much that there’s no room for other necessary foods that provide nutrition.
- Spread coffee grounds around your celery and plant non-desirable food plants like onions at the perimeter of your garden if you don’t want to use a chemical deterrent. Better still, put up a double fence the animals can’t jump over to preserve your celery and the deer’s health.
- Feeding deer instead of allowing them to forage naturally may increase the chance of transmitting several diseases, such as the dreadful chronic wasting disease. Also known as ‘zombie deer,’ the animals that contract chronic wasting disease lose weight rapidly and can be significantly more aggressive than usual.
Final Thoughts
Deer are majestic, beautiful, and good to eat if you don’t mind the gamy flavor of venison, but they are not masters of nutrition.
In nature, deer get a wide variety of foraged foods that combine to provide them with everything they need. These animals wander around, following their noses and eating.
A deer’s four-chambered stomach can hold and even break down a lot of food it shouldn’t like celery. Please do not feed deer celery.
Moreover, if you grow celery, protect it from the deer so they don’t accidentally eat something they shouldn’t.
