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- Thread starter Barndog56
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5 year old buck +
Yeah, I've read some posts where people claim deer eat hickory nuts. I call BS on that. For 31 years, I've lived with a yard full of mature hickory trees and lots of deer in the yard daily. ONE TIME in all of those years, I watched a young buck try to crack a hickory nut with his teeth. He tried for several minutes and couldn't do it. Shagbark nuts just aren't feasible for deer to process.
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browndog
5 year old buck +
I have a golden retriever that eats the nuts, she is crazy about them. I had a big shagbark in my yard and she was like a kid in a candy store when the nuts dropped, crunch crunch crunch. I cut that tree down two years ago.
She will still eat a few when I take her walking in the fall when I'm not paying attention.
j-bird
Moderator
I think it was Chainsaw if I'm not mistaken that claims his deer eat hickory nuts.... But southerners claim their deer love locust beans and Northerners claim deer eat turnips as well and I have never seen my deer eat those either to any real extent so who knows. I know in my woods I don't try to promote hickory, but I don't shed a tear if one needs to go either. They can be pretty prolific and at least in my area are considered a companion tree to oaks as the love the sunshine as well, but in my experience they will out compete an oak.
bigbendmarine
5 year old buck +
Glad browndog chimed in about his dog eating them as I've got a Great Dane / Mastiff mix that LOVES cracking shells when they're falling. In fact he taught an old lab I had (died a few years ago) to do the same. I could fuss at them until I was blue in the face to stop and they would only pause until I went away. Not 100% sure exact type of hickory we have but definitely not shagbark. One that drops nuts that the dog cracks is a massive tree. Trunk is almost the same size as our live oaks and quite a bit taller... Guessing about 90'. I've dug tiny bits of nut out of a few and it's delicious but I burnt more calories trying to get it out than I consumed. Squirrels like them but deer focus on the surrounding live oak acorns and not the hickory nuts.
Bowsnbucks
5 year old buck +
I've never seen deer eat hickory nuts - or dogs either. We have a bunch of them growing at camp. But bears will eat them !! I watched a bear lay on the ground and crack & eat hickory nuts ( shells and all ) for about an hour one evening. The sound was horrible. It sounded like the bear was chewing on rocks. Had to feel good the next day !! ?? 
bigbendmarine
5 year old buck +
Bowsnbucks, sounds absolutely horrible while the dogs are doing it too. Serious when I say the Great Dane / Mastiff mix chews on them habitually daily when they're falling as if it's his favorite pastime. Doesn't seem to cause him any discomfort at all from day to day... but he's getting a fair amount of tooth wear on him as he ages and the hickory nuts sure aren't helping, that's for dang sure.
browndog
5 year old buck +
You got that right! I remember one of the first times my golden was eating them, she was barely a year old. I could hear that horrible crunch and I was like, wtf is she eating?!? Walked over by her and pried her mouth open and it was nothing but jagged pieces of hickory nut shells and the meats. Her tail was wagging like no tomorrow. It was like she was a hickory nut junkie and couldn't get enough of them.
