Can corn from deer feeders be harmful to dogs?
I've read of some fungal toxin commonly found in corn (fumonisin) that can be bad for other animals.
Any vets here familiar with deer corn problems?
Send paradocs a PM . I bet He can answer that for you.
Im no vet,but there is alot of corn in dog food.
Bill
Corn purchased from feed mills, and retail establishments must be toxin tested, at least here in Texas. If you don't see the disclaimer on the bag, or from the seller it has not been tested.
Having said that, just because it has not been tested will not mean it is contaminated.
I've heard that corn and I think wheat in general are bad for dogs. I was told corn based dog food is not healthy, long term. If that's true I would think alot of corn at once would have some sort of affect on a dog.
Aflatoxin is a fungus common on corn and very dangerous to dogs and people. It is a ground decaying fungus and grains on the ground(or while growing in either drought or overly humid conditions)can grow it. There was a large dog-food recall in 2005 because of it being found in grain fillers that caused dog deaths around the USA.
Thanks Ron
Daryl (paradocs) was very helpful.
David: the fumonisin (5-10ppm) and the aflatoxin (<20ppbillion) were listed on a bag of deer corn along with a warning to not feed livestock with it.
I don't have a corn feeder but we occasionally throw out corn at the edge of our property just so we can see the fawns in May and June. But I didn't want to hurt my dog or a neighbor's dog. The deer can feed themselves.
Why would anyone want to feed it to deer if there is a warning on it not to feed it to "livestock"? Are they that different?
Good point David.
After some research and info from paradocs it appears the toxin is especially bad for horses and domestic hogs. The info on the bag is a CYA statement in case your Secretariet is running around in the deer woods.
cor is very hard to digiust it take sspecial enzyms in the stomach that develop over time if deer are not used to eating corn they can starve to death on full stomachs because they do not have teh enzymes to pull out the nutriants in the corn.
CRAZY! I never heard of such a thing! Does one run the risk then of hurting deer/pigs using corn?
if they have been brought up around corn they will be fine at least with the enzyme situation as far as teh fungus im not sure
Everything is inter-related. Everything we do affects something/everything else. These are just a few of many actual and potential negative consequences of domesticating wild animals.
Orion, you're right, and the hell of it is that most of the negative consequences we've caused haven't been caused out of evil, but caused with the best of intentions but insufficient understanding of the wide ranging ramifications of what we do.
It would seem there are plenty of deer and dogs both in the midwest.With all that corn growing all around it must not be a very big problem. ;)
Mississippi has been grappling with the illegal baiting problem. It became rampant and out of control. The State's response was to legalize "feeding" of deer, but the type of food is regulated according to the season. You have to "feed" the deer and turkeys with commercial pellets instead of corn during the hunting seasons. During hunting season, you can't hunt within 100 yards or in direct line of site of the feeders.
All feed must be either covered by a roof or broadcast by a commercial-type feeder. The toxins that can develop in piles of wet corn are the reason for the regulations on how the feed can be put out. Yes, bad corn can hurt wildlife.
I hunt around corn fields and have farmers feed it to their livestock, and both seem to be doing find.
My dog on the other hand is allergic to corn and believe me, there are very few dog foods that do not contain corn. The ones that do not have corn are also very expensive.
mine eats dried corn cobs all the time...he loves em and haven't had any problems yet.
I wouldn't worry about it, my setter drank about a quart of 10W-30 the other day after I worked her. It was hot and she didn't mind as long as it was wet.