content: From linked article: "…A deer’s rumen (stomach) contains millions of living microorganisms, which allows their digestive system to handle just about anything. The trouble is these microorganisms are specialists. Accustomed to digesting woody browse, they are unable to tolerate corn or apples. Whitetails do not do well on radical changes to their diets and a corn pile is a radical change from the diet of twigs and dead leaves they’ve been on for the past month or more.  Artificially fed deer wander off with a belly full of corn and slowly start starving to death as its digestive system struggles to digest the corn."