The diet of their food includes grass, … During winter months reindeer love to eat lichens, especially reindeer moss. If you have any questions or would like to share your tips and experience when feeding deer in the winter, then comment down below. They have been recorded as being opportunistic carnivores eating lemmings, birds eggs and arctic char (fish). Beyond their sled-pulling capabilities and discrimination against those with red noses, what do you really know about reindeer? Reindeer also enjoy eating the leaves of willow trees and birch trees. In the summer, reindeer thrive by eating grasses, plants, herbs, leaves, and forms of fungi. Reindeers eat many types of plants and their favorite food is lichen. Reindeers, both males and females have antlers; the difference is that the former lose them when winter arrives and the latter, late in the season. Reindeer are ruminants, having a four-chambered stomach. They mainly eat lichens in winter, especially reindeer moss. Most species of reindeer also eat grasses, mushrooms and mosses; Just like cows, reindeer “chew the cud” first digesting half chewed food into one stomach, only to regurgitate it, chew it some more and swallow it into another stomach. See, a reindeer prefers summers that are rainy and cool. During the winter the reindeers eat whatever is the easiest to find under the snow. Herders gather up their animals and begin the long journey to the winter feeding grounds, while wild caribou follow the instinctive pull towards their winter ranges. But in winter, during the cold and cloudy weather, the eyes of these northern animals turn blue. In the winter reindeer and caribou eat mainly lichens. When winter blows in, many reindeer have to travel south to find enough to eat as their breeding grounds become icy, windy and desolate. The antlers of reindeer. Northern deer are omnivorous creatures. Once winter sets in and snow covers the tundra, the reindeer diet narrows down to one food: lichen. Now that you are familiar with what they usually eat during the cold seasons begin plotting crops and knowing where to situate your deer feeders today.. They survive by eating a lot of Cladonia rangiferina, also known as Reindeer Lichen. They mainly eat lichens in winter, especially reindeer moss. For many years Icelanders have complained that the reindeers are over grazing but they actually have less impact on the pasture than sheeps do. In the winter months they feed almost exclusively on lichens and fungi which they often gain access to by sweeping snow and ice away with their antlers and/or hooves. While they eat, their winter fur drops off, leaving reindeer looking, well, not their best.