How long is an Acorn viable food for Deer once it touches ground ?

Bonus question : Can a Deer crunch up acorns and let the husks
fall out of their mouths as they chew ? Or is it 100% of the nut going down all the time ?
Some or possibly many small ones are swallowed whole I'll bet. Had a chance to watch ?
Or maybe checked a stomach or two ? Drop the knowledge. Thanks

Evry stomach that I e seen with acorns in it, all the a orns were whole.

Viability is dependent upon tannin content, which acts as a preservative.

Red oaks have more because they have to undergo cold stratification (“chill hours”, just like a fruit tree) before it can actually germinate and send down a taproot. Time/ temperature also gradually reduces the tannic acid within the nut. To understand tannin, think of an unripe persimmon. That sensation you get when you bite into one is due to tannin content. Because of this, red oak acorns (water oaks, southern reds, etc etc) remain, and actually increase, in palatability over days / weeks.

However, white oaks contain less tannin and are therefore sweeter, more attractive, and desirable the second they drop. Because of the relative lack of tannin, white oaks must germinate quickly upon hitting the forest floor. Therefore, their palatability peaks and then recedes within the first 48 hours or so. Once the radicle sprouts, the acorn begins to rapidly exhaust its caloric content in order to grow that taproot. Because of this, the nutritious content of the nut decreases greatly, and thus it is less desirable to animals.

Deer will eat an acorn post-germination, but it’s not as common or as attractive once that process begins. I think they allow the survivors to make it until spring, when the acorn sends up top growth which is also nutritious and desirable to deer and other animals. They’ll clip an oak seedling in a split second.

Knowledge BOMB dropped! Very informative surgical_grade.

Yes it was. Not sure if he copied and pasted or actually knew that off the top of his head but in any case it was good info.

Enjoyed that. Thanks !

But if they swallow them all whole, what role does palatability play ?
I think they chew at least some.

If i put a big double nut Peanut in my mouth, I can crack it, eat the nuts,
and let the shell fall away from my mouth. No hands. I bet Deer can do this
no problem with acorns.

That's not true. I have over 50 seconds of experience on acorns and I can flat out tell you that..............

This reminds me of something...For years and years I've seen whole acorns in deer that I have gutted, I never really thought about why they done that....Then one day while in a tree I had 3 come in and bed down about 30yds from me and I noticed one of those deer kept chewing and spitting something out, they laid down for a couple hrs and got up and walked off, so I was curious as to what she was spitting out so when I got down I went and looked and turned out to be acorn hulls... and a pile of them too...... She must have swallowed them whole to enjoy later....

Deer are like cows , goats and antelope. They eat their food , store it in a special pouch in their stomach and later regurgitate their food and chew their cud . They can eat acorns whole and later can hull them .Call them ruminants.

Sorry, but this is all I could think about while reading this.

Bingo !

Thanks for saving me from having to type all of that....

Post more Surgical_Grade. I thoroughly enjoyed and learned alot from your post. I learned alot about tannic acids from your post I never thought about.

B