Breeding and management of female deer in breeding period

The purpose of breeding female deer is to require female deer to have high fertility, healthy physique, and reproduce excellent offspring. Doe can breed excellent offspring, not only related to the breed of doe, but also closely related to feeding management. Good feeding management can make doe give full play to its excellent production performance.

According to the nutritional requirements and feeding management characteristics of doe in different periods, the feeding management of doe can be divided into three periods, which are described as follows:

1. Feeding and management of female deer during breeding period

After weaning in late August every year, the doe stops lactation and enters the physical recovery stage of pre-mating. The breeding period begins in mid September and ends in late November.

Herds are adjusted prior to mating to eliminate females that are sterile, vicious, too old, or seriously ill. According to the breed relationship, age and physical health status, the group can be divided into core group, general breeding group and primary female deer group. Each breeding herd is generally 25 - 30 deer.

The breeding management level of female deer during breeding period has an important influence on speeding up breeding progress and improving female foetus rate. If the female deer is thin and malnourished during breeding period, it will be late or not in estrus, and will prolong the breeding period, even cause female deer infertility. The female deer with plump body condition and good nutrition has fast egg growth and development, strong lust, obvious oestrus, early and concentrated oestrus, so the breeding progress is fast, and the conception rate and twin rate are also high.

The diet of female deer in breeding period should be adapted to local conditions, mainly coarse and juicy feed with large volume, supplemented by concentrate. Concentrate is mainly bean cake, corn, sorghum and so on. Doe daily feed concentrate 1.0 - 1.2kg; coarse feed 2.5 - 3.5kg, salt 18g; calcium hydrogen phosphate 15 - 20g; trace elements, vitamins should be added according to the brand description.

II. Feeding and Management of Female Deer during Pregnancy

Female deer gestation period is generally 7 and a half months, mainly refers to December of that year to April of the following year. Fetal growth and development of female deer in early and middle pregnancy is slow, but in late pregnancy fetal growth and development is very fast, maternal uterus and mammary gland also enlarged. More than 80% of fetal weight is gained during the last three months of pregnancy. To late pregnancy, in feeding according to the characteristics of different stages of fetal growth and development to match the diet. Especially in the late pregnancy, the stomach capacity of doe gradually decreases and the digestive function weakens. The diet of doe should choose good quality and palatability. Protein feed such as bean cake should account for 30%-35%, corn, sorghum, bran, etc. account for 50%-70%. The daily ration of coarse feed for pregnant doe was 2.5 - 3.0 kg of crushed corn straw. Conditions can be fed silage, to avoid acidity is too high, to prevent abortion.

Pregnant dams should be fed concentrate and roughage twice or three times during the day. If they are fed twice during the day, they should be fed roughage once at night.

In the second trimester of pregnancy, all female deer should be inspected once, the deer herd should be adjusted, and the weak and malnourished female deer should be transferred to the corresponding deer herd for feeding and management.

In order to enhance the health of the doe, regular exercise should be carried out every day. The deer house should have good lighting and the bed should be often padded with hay 10cm thick. The barn and sports ground should be cleaned frequently, and regular drug disinfection should be carried out to strengthen the training and domestication of pregnant doe. Attention should be paid to stabilizing the herd to prevent abortion accidents.

III. Feeding and management of female deer during lactation

The female deer began lambing in early May and weaned in late August. The lactation period was about 90 days. The weight gain of fawns was 6.0 kg one month after birth, and the average daily weight gain was about 0.5 kg. Lactating doe need to absorb a large amount of protein, fat, minerals and multivitamins from feed and drink water every day, and convert them into milk in the body.

The rumen volume increases and the digestive capacity of gastrointestinal tract increases after the female deer gives birth. Therefore, the concentrate of lactating doe should account for 65%-75% of protein feed in the diet, feed 2 - 3 times a day coarse feed, 3 times concentrate feed, and feed coarse feed at night.

In summer, the female deer house should be kept clean and hygienic to avoid harmful microorganisms contaminating the female deer udder and milk and causing diseases to the young deer. Breeders should regularly clean deer houses and disinfect them with chemical spray.

The female deer should be trained and domesticated in time. The timid and frightened female deer and young deer should not be forcibly driven away. When necessary, the docile female deer should be used to guide them.