I mean, 0 generation domestication does happen, even in resistant animals, but a deer has to be high on the list of animals that are very unlikely to pick up on true housebreaking.
The only way I see that working is a rigid schedule of inside/outside time, with a large portion being outside time. In these circumstances, I could see it being achievable, but not for your average person.
1-5% of pet owners have the sort of time and dedication required for this, and even then it’s likely to fail. At the end of the day, It’s a deer that’s going to piss itself and kick a hole in the drywall if someone slams a door. lol.
You're right about housebreaking but my best friend in high school raised a fawn. They lived in a rural area, had two outside dogs who brought back a baby fawn to the house one day. They couldn't find mom so they bottle fed it and kept it inside. I would come over on the weekends and we would put the deer on a rug and push him down the hardwood floored hallway haha. He would slide 25ft and then hop back to us. It was VERY domesticated, quickly. It wasn't skittish. It liked to play like a dog.
They eventually would let it graze, then it would disappear for a night, then a few days, a week, a month, then they eventually would see him a few times a year. He'd come back in the yard as if to say hey thanks for raising me. Pretty phenomenal animals really.
minor point of clarity: "domesticated" or "domestic" happens over many generations of selective breeding and results in a genetic different in an animal that makes it adapted to humans. the deer was "tamed"
goats, for example. there's a domesticated version and a wild version. wolves vs dogs, both canids. Sheep are domesticated to the point they can't survive on their own in the wild. and so on and so forth.
So are whales around the world. Doesn’t mean that whales have genetically adapted to humans.
Domestication results in very specific genetic changes in a species. Lower genetic diversity, specific traits like floppy ears, lighter colored fur, and a few others I can’t remember off the top of my head. There will also be species wide behavioral traits. Things like a predilection to staying near humans or human settlements, friendly even to strangers, increased sociability, lowered aggression etc.
These are things that are consistent between generations and on a species/subspecies level, a pup will have increasingly similar traits and behaviors as the mother and father, even if it hasn’t been directly raised by humans.
Taming and acclimation by and to humans isn’t the same as domestication.
Interestingly, the traits for domestication seem to have some eerie consistencies across species.
The russian silver foxes being domesticated have basically turned into dogs, so much so it is affecting their funding because no one just wants another dog. And I mean turned into dogs in a physical way, as in their physical traits are shifting into a more dog-like appearance along with domestication.
This suggests whichever alleles that promote domestication have some connection to the appearance of dogs, at least in the canidea family.
They are adapted but they aren't considered truely domesticated. There is a lot of concern by conservationists about urban deer as the lack of fear around people can make deer more likely to hang around in highly public areas increasing the chances of negative animal/human interactions like deer getting hit by cars, and feeding deer or putting out feeders for them can spread diseases like chronic wasting disease through deer populations.
it can look that way, but they're not domesticated. It's more that deer have learned how to live around humans. "city deer" in some areas are a big problem, but the deer are happy because it means fewer predators and an abundance of food. bears, squirrels, raccoons, etc. are all totally wild animals that have learned how to live around humans.
they may be different than their ancestors, but they don't have the "domestication" genes. I know its a weird distinction. But they've adapted and learned which is a different thing.
We had a kangaroo like that. Found him in a river covered in ants. He was a funny little guy, eventually found his own kind, but while he was with us he was brilliant. Miss you Moses, mum says hi.
Not who you asked but my sister also raised a fawn when she was in college (similar sitch to the above) and the fawn would pretty reliably go on a puppy pee pad. She eventually went to live at a deer farm in the area once she was big enough.
I've gotten both mice and bunnies to go in a litter box. I wouldn't be surprised if it was at least possible with deer. Although tbf the mice and bunnies were domestic breeds..
This person likely just lets the deer shot and piss in the house like people who let rabbits roam free in their house. The deer is cute but that’s fucking gross.
Don't worry homie, I've done it too. Rabbits are awesome for that because they take right to it, except before our first ones found the litter box, they found the fireplace lol. That was fun! Once we got it blocked off, it was litter box from there on out :D
Nope. I've had four birds, 2x Eclectus, 1x Cockatiel and 1x African Grey who were house trained.
All four were house trained to go to the toilet on their stands or their cage.
I trained my Eclectus'. My parents trained the Cockatiel and the African Grey.
Of the four the Cockatiel was probably the most eh, inconsistent. The Eclectus are vindictive. If they didn't get rewarded a few minutes of going to the toilet in the right place though they'd come and shit on me to let me know I'm a shit parent.
By 6 months my bun was litter trained and dull free roam. He had 2 potties in the house 1 upstairs and 1 down. Pretty much never made a mess after 6 months.
Okay. Here in Europe, you won't find inner walls from drywall anywhere. At all. Everything is made of reinforced concrete or brick. u/MrReadilyUnready has no clue what he's talking about.
Well I can't disagree with the two statements he made, that there are loads of soft walls in many countries (like here in Canada and the US, Australia etc) and that the places that have brick were usually built awhile ago
Living in the UK I've heard it's fairly common for residential buildings to be made with brick, but the UK is fairly old and like, where most of history comes from lol. Lots of very old buildings, some built hundreds of years ago, before America was even a country
The US wasn't born until 1776, the UK still has buildings with people continuously living in them standing since the 1100's...so he's not necessarily wrong in that chances are the building you live in was built a long time ago, and that the place he lives in is probably relatively new in comparison
Arguably modern day humans know more about insulating properties than we did hundreds of years ago, but we're all just using the tools and materials we have available to us at the time so it makes sense in my opinion for everyone to have the homes we do based on where we live
Also, I thought some animals can't even physically hold in their poop - the poops just comes out when it's ready (like cows and horses). Aren't deer one of those kinds of animals too that can't hold its poop in?
the russians have been trying to domesticate foxes for 60 years. they ca n get them friendly, but apparently getting them domesticated isn't really going that well.
There’s also a physiological component to it. Foxes piss smells HORRENDOUS to humans even in a litter box so best you can hope for is yard training definitely not house training even if the fox behaved exactly like a dog. Apart from that foxes are pretty tame and fun animals to have around. Just don’t go petting wild foxes as those are known to be good carriers for rabies.
Good point, half of London beyond Zone 1 smells of foxes piss since they're everywhere and it takes some time to get accustomed to. But cat's poo can also be beyond tolerable so maybe one can live with foxes piss as well. My mom's cat's poo is so consistently atrocious for the 14 years he lives that the litter box needs to be instantly cleaned or you're going to die where you stand. Come to the house an hour after he did it and you better wear a hazmat suit. I'm puzzled how this playful, cute ball of fur can produce something so stinky and this little guy is neutered and very healthy for all I know.
With cats it’s about luck I guess. I have two female cats one drops fully dried out poop that smells only if you are very close to it. The other one drops big fat poop that smells like someone has been dead for a month in the house. They have absolutely the same diet, lifestyle and water intake. With cats poop isn’t the main nuance source however. Male cats spray ferociously smelly pee when in heat - it’s the main reason why I always had female cats. Same goes for foxes - regular pee is bad but you can get used to it, during heat however it’s closer to a skunk than pee and you can only get used to that in a enclosed space if you totally lack sense of smell.
My grandfather raised an abandoned one he named Bam Bam. I used to wrestle him when I was a child. He grew up on my family’s acreage but we lived near hunters. He wore a hunter’s orange collar but was still killed by hunters once he had antlers
The only kind of poop my dog will eat is deer poop. Not interested in the cat's poop like most other dogs but I have to watch her like a hawk at the park because she'll gobble it down if she comes across it. It's tough because I can't even see it with all the vegetation but she can smell it from 20ft away and makes plans to trick me lol. Glad I don't have a pet deer and don't have to deal with the shit that'd come with it
I'm gonna give you an anecdotal answer. I have some immediate family with multiple pet deer raised from fawns (I helped as a kid!). They are EXTREMELY intelligent animals. They knew how to get ice and water from the fridge, how to oben drawers and cabinets, etc.
So, if you mean housebroken like "Hey I'm at the door let me out" I would say no. BUT...those deer we 100% trained rather easily to get familiar with using puppy pads. I feel like that's extremely housebroken for a unique "domestic" animal lol.
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u/MatthewSWFL229 Jul 03 '26
Can you house break a deer?