05/30/2026
The fawn have started arriving!
Meet our first three orphaned fawns of the year: Applewood, Brie, and Cheddar!
Every year we like to have fun with our naming scheme, and this year it's types of cheese. 🙃
Let's talk fawns. During, spring time you may see very young fawns with no mothers around. That's actually normal.
Mother deer will leave their babies alone for very long periods of time, usually staying within vocal distance to keep an ear out. While young fawns can stand and move about, they aren't strong enough to follow mom around while she feeds all day, and they certainly can't outrun a predator yet. For deer, that's the only defense they have.
So mom stows them somewhere, like in bushes or grass that allows their spots to act as camouflage, hiding them from predators eyes and noses. While mom is away foraging for food, the babies will remain there waiting for her to come back. She return a couple of times a day to feed and care for them for the first few weeks. Then, when they are strong enough they will follow mom about.
If you come across a deer sitting quietly underneath a bush, in a ditch, or alone in the grass, with its head up and alert, and they are not crying or shivering, this is normal behaviour and the fawn is doing exactly what it should be doing. A fawn in this condition doesn’t need to be helped! If you see a fawn that is wandering about, crying excessively for a long period of time, is shivering, or laying on its side, or has flies buzzing about it, or the mother is found dead nearby - contact wildlife rehabilitator for help.
