From your own state....
http://texnat.tamu.edu/files/2017/02/EWF-032-Supplemental-Feeding-of-White-Tailed-Deer.pdf
"Feeding nontarget species
ose who choose to supplement white-tailed deer often nd they are also feeding wildlife species other than deer. While some of these nontarget animals, such as quail or turkey may be equally desirable, others may be nuisances or even predators.
e most common nuisance animals at deer feeding stations are wild pigs, raccoons and opossums—they consume large quantities of feed. In addition to increasing the cost of feeding, these species can spread disease to other wildlife. Other nuisance animals include small mammals, such
as mice and rats, that consume and scatter feed rations and damage feeders, and may also transmit diseases or host parasites that a ect both white- tailed deer and humans."
You'd be better off planting crops for the deer to eat than feeding them at feeders. By concentrating them at feeders, you attract so-called vermin, predators, diseases, etc.... you are creating and enhancing the problem by putting out feeders for deer. It's a bad practice. There's better alternatives to getting healthy deer on your place, and lessening the raccoon problem at the same time.
I'm not anti-hunting. I let my neighbor hunt my property for the past 29 years. He plants crops on his property specifically for deer, turkey, etc... I fish as often as I can. But we don't put out food for specific animals and then shoot anything else that shows up to eat it. That's just wrong.
