english ivy && deer
 

The message
from Chris Owens contains these words:

Mogie wrote:

I pruned my english ivy back and want to throw the excess over the
fence. Is
it bad for deer to eat this?

No, but unless they are very hungry, they won't.

(sings)

Mares eat oats and does eat oats and little lambs eat ivy;
A kid'll eat ivy too
Wouldn't you?

Deer relish eating ivy once they get a taste for it; it's nutritious.
IIRC, goatkeepers feed ivy to ailing goats.

In our last garden I had a ruined railway goods van which was nicely
covered in ivy, until the local deer tasted it and ate off every single
ivy leaf below 5ft :-(. It was winter but no snow and plenty of good
grass and other browsing herbage.

Janet.