Deer will eat hedge apples if nothing else is available to feed on. Hedge trees and hedge apples are one of the lowest of the low in whitetail diet.
They typically stomp them with their front hooves to break them apart before feeding on them. I would definitely not be using it as my top 10 choice of food for a deer trap unless there is a shortage of browse and crops in the hunting area or a rough winter.
From what I’ve seen, it is a late winter food source to them and the way they approach is to stomp and bite open the ball and eat the seeds inside.
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Can a Deer eat Hedge leaves?
Deer love hedge leaves and create a browseline. Don’t believe me? Go out now and check a hedge row.
Deer will feed on hedgeballs in late season, but the squirrels in my yard will eat them all year long.
Can Tree rats eat Hedge Leaves?
There are lots of Osage trees (also called “Hedge” in Illinois) where people hunt and squirrels (also tree rats) love to peel of all of the outer layer and consume the little pingt pong ball sized “seed” in the middle.
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Do Deer Eat the Fruit of The Osage orange tree?
Deer will eat hedgeballs.
How do I know that? I have lived amidst hedgerows for more than 56 years now. However, they wil only do so as a last resort, like in a cold, nasty winter when all the grain and browse is gone.
A friend of mine has shot up to 3 nice, mature, deer on hedgeballs and locust pods very late in the season, near a bedding area.
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