10/10/2022
Naturally shed. They regrow new ones each year, and shed them in late winter / early spring. A lot of people don't know this, but most of the "natural" antlers in the pet stores are from cut off farmed animals (deer and elk jerky). They actually hold them down in a corral and cut the antlers off before they are done growing. So a store antler is going to be less dense since it wasn't fully developed. When I make the deer I usually cut off the burrs because I'm planning to make something with them eventually (like furniture for my house - drawer pulls), but I like to leave them on sometimes to demonstrate that it's a naturally fallen off antler, and so people who know a lot about antlers know what they are getting. The ends of the antler are called tines "spikes" and they are really thin. Since they are so far away from the base of the skull they are also the least dense so dogs are more liable to break and splinter them, and can cause problems. All of the deer antlers I sell are cut from the base portion of the antler.
