While you can’t really provide too much nutrition, overkill is wasteful.
QUESTION: If you are providing a trace mineral block for deer to gain vitamins or minerals to enhance health and/or growth, then why wouldn’t it be good to have a higher content of the minerals in a deer feed rather than just a measurable trace?
ANSWER: Deer utilize minerals in a variety of ways. Some minerals, like calcium and phosphorous, promote growth and strength in bones (especially antlers). Others, like sodium, are used in various body function processes like digestion and cell growth.
In good habitat with good soil, deer should be able to obtain most, if not all, the minerals they need from the vegetation they eat. However, certain trace minerals may be lacking in the environment, and providing them through supplements can improve herd health.
These minerals are essentially like human vitamins. In fact, many human supplements contain trace minerals. And, like humans, deer don’t need a lot. Their bodies will absorb, assimilate and utilize what they need. The rest simply passes through their system and is excreted.
There’s been a good deal of research on deer nutrition, and scientists have refined the most beneficial types, amounts and ratios of trace minerals. Most deer-specific supplements are based on these. Providing higher concentrations would only be wasteful.
Sodium is usually not lacking but encourages deer to consume the minerals.
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