Those little guys are still learning from mama, and respectfully, a couple deer a week is probably not happening, regardless of any lions size and age, its pretty rare to find a couple a week lion kills scattered around the mountains. The real culprit if your numbers are dropping are probably coyotes. Lion populations rise and fall with prey populations. Healthy deer herds=healthy lion pops. declining deer herds=declining lion pops. Harley Shaw's book, "soul among lions" goes into depth on studies done on this in AZ/NM and Id. its a good read and pretty darn educational if anyone is interested in the facts, or as close as facts can get with these elusive predators.