03/10/2024
Leaving corn for deer and other wildlife may seem benign, or even beneficial, but it is actually one of the most harmful things you can do for neighborhood wildlife. We generally recommend against feeding wildlife at all, with the possible of migratory songbirds. But if you insist on feeding wildlife, please avoid corn at all cost!
Corn is junk food for wildlife. Most native wild animals are unable to efficiently digest corn. In the short term, it causes diarrhea and gas that can quickly turn fatal. In the long run, corn contains far too much sugar for most wildlife and an improper balance of vitamins, minerals, and macronutrients.
Opossums and squirrels that eat corn can develop metabolic bone disease, while waterfowl develop angelwing syndrome. Deer, especially in winter, can die of ketoacidosis when corn sharply increases their blood sugar— especially in winter, when their bodies change to adapt to a very limited diet.
Corn also attracts the “wrong” animals. Non-native rats and mice tend to love corn and will unnaturally overpopulate an area where corn is fed. These species are harmful to wildlife, often destroying nests and eggs of native birds and out-competing our native rodents. When these overpopulated rodents spread, it may lead to your neighbors using rodenticides, which then kill the predators who eat poisoned rats.
Corn left outside, particularly in hot and moist weather, can also turn to poison. It may ferment, turning it to alcohol that wild animals cannot process or tolerate, or it may grow toxic molds. Of greatest concern to wildlife are aspergillus molds, which grow abundantly on corn and produce aflatoxins, which have caused mass deaths of entire flocks of wild birds. Turkeys and quail are most susceptible, while songbirds may die from simply being near these molds.
If you want to help your local wildlife, please plant native plants, skip using pesticides and herbicides, leave fallen leaves alone, keep your pets contained, and take steps to prevent window collisions. But skip the corn, please!
