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Are Deer Antlers Just for Trophies, or Can You Eat Them Too? The Answer Will Surprise You

by Richard Baimbridge

Every now and then I come across a post on one of the Facebook hunting groups I’m in that catches my eye – and this one really grabbed my attention. Posted in a North Carolina bowhunting group page recently, it asked the odd question: “Can you eat deer antlers?”

Of course, the obvious answer for most people would be “no”, and indeed I’ve even read articles in some hunting magazines not only advising against it as being dangerous, but outright mocking the idea as utterly ridiculous. Yet actually, as strange as it might sound, that’s not quite correct. And in this article, I’ll give some examples of both humans and animals consuming deer antlers — and why it may, in fact, be a very smart and healthy thing to do after all. But first, a quick primer on what deer antlers are, and how they change over the course of the year….

Antlers 101

Antlers are mostly composed of calcium, phosphorus, collagen, sulfur, magnesium, potassium, sodium, iron and amino acids. They’re one of the fastest-growing tissues in the animal kingdom, super-charged by powerful hormones — chief among them being testosterone.

In the Velvet Stage, antlers are a living tissue, covered with a soft, vascularized, velvety layer. The velvet supplies nutrients, oxygen, and hormones essential for growth. Early in development, antlers are composed mostly of cartilage. But as they mature, the cartilage calcifies, turning into dense bone tissue.

As blood-flow to the velvet gradually decreases, the cartilage in the antlers begins to harden. As it dries out, it cracks, and is shed or rubbed off on trees or other surfaces. Once the velvet is gone, the antlers are fully hardened and ready for mating displays and sparring during the rut.

After the rut, testosterone levels begin to drop, and the bone at the base of the antler weakens. The antlers are eventually shed, allowing the growth cycle to restart in spring.

Antlers as Food & Nutrition

Generally speaking, if you want to know what’s safe to eat in the wild, a good place to start is by observing animals. And many animals (including deer) eat antlers. Some species of birds, such as crows, have a symbiotic relationship with deer, helping them to shed their velvet by sitting on their backs and eating the dried skin. There are many videos you can see where the deer seem quite happy with this arrangement and are clearly enjoying the grooming assistance.

Squirrels also like to gnaw on shed antlers, as do mice and other rodents who use them as a natural source of mineral supplements. Then of course, there’s the deer themselves. As deer shed their velvet, they often eat the pieces.

“When the tissue is still fresh and moist, it’s full of minerals and vitamins,” says Kurt VerCauteren, wildlife biologist at the National Wildlife Research Center in Colorado. “Deer just can’t resist the nutritious snack,” he adds.

But is it also good for humans?

Chinese Medicine & Modern Health Supplements

Deer antlers have been used in China for at least 2000 years to treat a number of diseases and heath conditions, from arthritis to mumps. The antlers are either ground into a fine powder or boiled down to a gelatin, then solidified and cut into small strips.

In Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), deer antler velvet (lu rong) is believed to strengthen the kidneys, liver, and bones. It’s also widely used to enhance reproductive health and fertility -- in other words, a 2000-year-old organic version of Viagra.

A clinical study by the National Institute of Health (NIH) in 2012 found that deer antlers have numerous health benefits on everything from osteoporosis to having anti-inflammatory, analgesic, anti-bacterial, anti-viral, anti-fatigue and anti-oxidant properties. It also concluded that consuming antlers as medicine has “no severe side effects.”

Deer antler supplements have become very popular recently amongst athletes as an immune system booster and performance enhancer. They tout the presence of IGF-1 hormones and organic molecules called nucleosides (the building blocks of DNA) as helping with muscle tissue recovery and having anti-fatigue effects. However, these supplments should be taken with caution and in safe amounts.

Antler Soup and Roasted Velvet

The ultimate question, perhaps, is – how do antlers taste? Well, apparently, in China deer antler soup is a fairly common dish, renowned for both its taste and health benefits. The soup is usually prepared with a chicken stock and combines other medicinal herbs, such as ginseng and Goji berries. But I’ve also seen hunters just cut off chunks of velvet antlers and roast them over an open fire.   

Some hunters caution against using deer bones (or antlers) for soup broth due to fears of possible CWD in the marrow. But there’s no evidence this holds any truth. It’s still unknown exactly how the disease is spread amongst deer, or whether or not it can even affect humans. In either case, neither bone marrow nor antlers seem to play an important role in CWD.  

In the end, while I don’t suggest tossing a pair of antlers into a pot along with some potatoes, carrots and celery, I think the saying, “Everything but the antlers” deserves some reconsideration.

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