Food is abundant even in areas that do not normally provide deer with nutritious food. At this time of year, the woods become a huge salad bar, and deer are able to sample different flowers and plants as they choose. Among the spring favorites in Missouri are wild lettuce, grape vines, trumpet vine, cinquefoil, sweet clover, violets and spring beauty. Most plants offer peak nutrition during spring, and whitetails respond with growth spurts and weight gain. Males channel energy to their antlers and regain the weight lost during last year's breeding activities.
Females transfer energy to unborn fawns, which now undergo rapid growth.
The number of fawns that are born and survive annually is dependant upon a number of factors including the age and nutrition of the mother, deer density in the area and winter stress. Birthrates vary from region to region as these factors change. In Missouri, the pregnancy rate of whitetails was measured by examining the number of fetuses in road-killed does. Adults had more offspring per doe than yearlings, who had more than the youngest group. In Missouri, most adult and yearling does have twins each year.