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Kentucky law (301 KAR 2:015) prohibits feeding of wildlife in certain instances to help protect and conserve populations of native species, which provide important ecological, social and economic benefits to the Commonwealth. These include restrictions that are 1) statewide or 2) area-specific, as described below. Restrictions on feeding/baiting help to reduce impacts from diseases and unnaturally high concentration of predators, particularly when wildlife are young and more susceptible to these threats.
Wildlife shall not be fed statewide in Kentucky from March 1 through July 31 except as follows per 301 KAR 2:015, where “feeding”:
(a) Means willingly, wantonly, or knowingly depositing, distributing, or scattering of shelled, shucked, or unshucked corn, millet, milo, safflower seed, sunflower seed, thistle, wheat, or other grain or any manufactured feed or food product to be consumed by wildlife; and (b) Does not mean the establishment and maintenance of plantings for wildlife, foods found scattered solely as the result of normal agricultural planting practices or harvesting practices, foods available to wildlife through normal agricultural practices of livestock feeding if the areas are occupied by livestock actively consuming the feed on a daily basis, or standing farm crops under normal agricultural practices.
Plantings (such as food plots planted to forages, grains or legumes) for wildlife and normal agricultural practices are permissible statewide.
Salt and mineral licks for wildlife are permissible statewide except in the CWD Surveillance Zone counties (see below).
Bird feeders within the curtilage of the home (immediate yard) are permissible statewide.
Fish may be fed year-round (in private ponds).
Under the authority of the commissioner, baiting of deer is allowed with restrictions in the Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) Surveillance Zone for the 2025–2026 deer season:
A statewide prohibition on feeding is in effect from March 1 through July 31. Feeding and baiting are illegal at all times on WMAs.
While baiting is permitted under certain limitations, it can lead to unnatural congregation of deer, increasing the risk of CWD transmission through saliva, urine, and feces from infected animals. Hunters should carefully consider this risk before choosing to bait deer within the CWD Surveillance Zone.
The CWD Surveillance Zone includes the following counties: Ballard, Calloway, Carlisle, Fulton, Graves, Hardin, Henderson, Hickman, Marshall, McCracken, Meade, Union, and Webster.