Reindeer For Sale

Reindeer enjoy a certain level of celebrity thanks to their status as the favored pet, faithful companion, and mode of transportation for Santa Claus. This species of deer is called a reindeer in Europe, but a caribou in North America. They are native to arctic, subarctic, boreal, and tundra regions in North America, Europe, and Siberia. Because reindeer are so wide-spread around the globe, they vary greatly in size and coloring from one geographical area to the next. Both sexes of reindeer can grow antlers, but the antlers on the males are typically larger. Reindeer are important to the lifestyle and economy of several arctic and subarctic cultures because the animal is used for transportation, meat, milk, and leather.

Pet Reindeer

Reindeer are herd animals and spend much of their time in the wild grazing and wandering. In captivity, they should be given a large, pasture-like enclosure so they can graze. They are well-suited to colder climates but cannot tolerate extreme heats. If they are kept in an area where temperatures climb, the animals should be moved to an air-conditioned interior pen or stall.

Reindeer Diet

Reindeer are ruminant grazers. They require less food than cows and other types of livestock. They can be fed hay, pellets, grains, and grazing grasses. In the wild, they survive on lichen, twigs, grass, leaves, and mushrooms.

Reindeer Enrichment

Because reindeer are nomadic animals, they need plenty of space in which to walk. In the wild, the typical reindeer walks about eight miles per day. One of the biggest problems that plague these animals in captivity is confinement with no opportunity to walk and graze. They do better when kept in large enclosures and can rotate between multiple enclosures.

Breeding Reindeer

Reindeer have a hierarchy of male dominance and the males will fight each other to move up the ranks. The higher ranking males earn the right to mate with a group of females. The animals will mate from September to November and the babies are born in late May through June. They are cared for by the mother and, after a few weeks, are big enough to join the herd.