Why not? It’d be easy and it’s been done with a bunch of other critters that people like to hunt so why not?

It’s not easy, but you can breed for certain traits like piebalds or mostly white deer.


But they never caught on as super popular

It can’t be that hard there’s plenty of albino and melanistic deer around. They did it to impala, wildebeest, springbok, blesbok and others. I’m sure if they were available they would get sold.

It’s not as easy as saying it can’t be that hard.

Go talk to some breeders and get their take on it

Also, I’ve never seen or heard or a mentalistic deer in captivity.

Why would someone want to turn a perfectly good game animal into a commercial oddity and commodity? The commercialization of hunting will be the downfall of hunting.

Because some poser would be willing to pay in advance to kill one, have it mounted and tell people he hunted this rare deer. Not a good one IMO, but that's one reason.

Same reason half the plains game in south Africa are being bred for it right now, people will buy it.

We can breed 300” whitetail I don’t think a few color phase is the limit. I’ve seen piebald, albino, and melanistic straws for sale.

^^^^ill go with this.

And you think this is a good thing?

kind of a catch 22. Animals with minimal to zero value dont last long especially if they compete for resources with domestic. Animals with value tend to aquire a large tolerance when there is a pricey land owner voucher attached to them, or steep restitution for poaching. Not saying either is right or wrong just Value is needed.

LE draw tags are perfect example of a commodity thats has a lot of value

I don’t care one way or the other but breeding for color is not “ruining” everything like some say. Those genetics are already there it’s not like someone is splicing DNA. BOBO is right especially in Africa no value it goes away period so if people get bored with impalas and stop hunting them landowners will just kill them all and raise cattle so yeah it can be a good thing. I don’t kill the color phase animals in Africa but I see em all the time and hunters like em so I’m all for it.

There is a genetic reason not many of the color phase animals exist. Start tinkering with mother nature and bad things can happen. Animals evolved in their color for a reason, survival for the most
part.
Man does not need to get involved in changing nature.

^^^A lot of wisdom in Wytex’s post^^^

I’m for leaving well enough alone but it will probably happen. Deer breeders appear to have learned nothing from the growing CWD mess unfolding inside high fences. The majority of the ones I’ve listened to speak about it deny it is even a problem.
Who am I to say though, I go to great lengths and expense chasing bird dogs with breeding so selective it makes my head spin. Pretty close to the same thing, centuries later.

When you get down to it, it boils down to tastes and money.

CWD is a prion found in the soil. It’s not a mutation caused by deer breeding. It was first found in Texas in elk and mule deer populations hundreds of miles from any high fence. All kinds of animals carry it not just deer.

It’s not a disease caused by deer breeding or by high fences. It’s sheep scrapie.

It’s already being done. A buddy of mine killed this one a month ago. He wouldn’t tell me what it cost him. High fence hunting is a lot like shopping for art to put on the wall.

He killed the St. Hubertus stag! That can't be good.

Several outfits in the Midwest offer hunts for white whitetail. The deer above is not an albino.

They come with issues with breeding them, typically, but not always; smaller antlers, lower survival rates, etc. The Seneca depot in New York has a big herd of white deer. They are very well known for it. Naturally occurring.

I sold a ranch that had breeding operation that had two-three very nice piebald bucks in the herd.

As for the shopping aspect, with todays scouting techniques, many outfitted hunts are “shopping” high fence or low. Eastern Colorado mule deer is a good example of this.

^^^this sounds right to me.

I was talking to a buddy earlier in the week about being able to go buy a 170” whitetail in a fence if you wanted to spend the money to have one but not so much a white one. I stand corrected, if your willing to throw enough money at it. Heck, for enough money you could probably find someone to bleach any one of them inside the pen before you shoot it.

Let’s use facts when having a discussion and not delve into ridiculousness by making statements like bleaching deer.

Here is an outfit that offers piebald deer

https://chasindreamwhitetails.com/pricing/

I agree, when it became possible to buy whatever score deer you want inside a high fence I suddenly wasn’t impressed with a giant deer hanging on the wall.

Unless it’s a good customer! Then that buck suddenly becomes very impressive. Especially when one of my competitors paid for it. Suddenly I can’t wIt to hear the exciting parts of that high fence hunt.

I was dead serious. Darting deer in a pen is already a thing…

For a paid hunt, he sure is holding that deer way out in front of him.

Define pen.