bottle calves for newbies

[rockridgecattle]

Your doing good! And good call on feeding a little at a time, especially when a young calf has not had much in a 12 hour period

[DavisBeefmasters]

Excellent! Now that she knows you are the new milk momma she'll start bellerin' for ya... put a little calf starter or something in front of her too and plenty of fresh water.

Good work!

[m&kCattle]

Also best milk is from the mother. If ya can ( sometimes this isn't an option ) I like to try to milk the mom to have milk for the calf. It can get a little western on some cows but worth the effort in my opinion. Also you can try a nurse cow to put the calf on. I also like to make sure I'm ready to tube them if they won't drink. It is very important to get it into them and some just won't take to a bottle right away.

[CCFARMS]

Thank you for your great post. That helps us green horns out a bunch. Thanks milkmaid! Just had a cow reject her calf and I'm scrambling to save this little bugger. I'm sure i have made many mistakes but its not from lack of trying. People like you giving your knowledge out for free after hours of sweat, blood and the hard work is really appreciated.

[lmp570]

my 2 week old calf's mother wont let him nurse. hes not taking to the bottle very well with me holding it, so my question is... if i leave a bottle of milk replacer on a hanger, how long will it take for that milk to SPOIL???? hopefully this will only be a temporary fix but if i leave the milk out for a few hours w/o running the risk of making the calf sick?

God bless.

[stormy]

Where were you a year ago when I was bottle feeding my first bull. I was successful though just treated him like my child sang to him and calmed him down and he took right to the bottle like you showed. Thanks for the info anyway. I have alot to learn dealing with two pregnant cows for the first time now. Little nervous about that any advice. Thanks Stormy

[dun]

Where were you a year ago when I was bottle feeding my first bull. I was successful though just treated him like my child sang to him and calmed him down and he took right to the bottle like you showed. Thanks for the info anyway. I have alot to learn dealing with two pregnant cows for the first time now. Little nervous about that any advice. Thanks Stormy

The only advice would be to read up on recognizing problems with calving and most importantly RELAX

[shorty]

A good book for information on cattle is Storey's Guide to Raising Beef Cattle , my daughter gave one to me for christmas about ten years ago , it's a good book.

[jborders]

Well considering this is my first post I guess that would really make me a newbie.
Anyways I have two 2week old holstein bull calves that I bought at a sale barn. They were doing great for the first few days, but this morning they only drank half of a bottle then turned their nose up to it. I've only had them for 3 days and have never had calves before so any help would be appreciated. I was told that when they start getting diarhea to give them pepto so this morning was the first bottle with the pepto in it.

[shorty]

Why did you add pepto to their milk , are you seeing signs of diarhea . They probably didn't take it all because they didn't like what you added to it . If you have signs of diarhea before you just do things on your own talk to a vet or at least get someone who knows something about calves to take a look at them . If you suspect problems it is aslo a good idea to check their temps .

[jborders]

A friend of mine has been raising bottle calves for years and he is the one that told me to use pepto.
And yes they both had consistent diarhea, very runny and yellow. I called our vet and he gave me two shots to give them and now they're both eating like, well, cows

[shorty]

That's good just keep an eye on them , keep checking their temps just to make sure everthing is okay.

[preston39]

MM,
Excellent.

Jen,
We do 6-9 bottle calves a year from the commercial and registered herds......for various reasons.
One of the most important items is the amount of milk you give them. If we error...it is on the LESS side, with gradual increases. Once they take the bottle some will over eat, if you let them and the results is not good.(A calf on a mom who is not a heavy milker...perhaps 10/12 on the EPD rating(19+/-...Angus avg EPD)...will keep nursing and hunching when the milk is finished....vs...a heavy milker...(i.e 26 EPD) where the calf will finish and maybe go back in a few seconds for a little more...but does not finish the milk available. Our experience is that this calf is most often the scours type.
Make sure that mouth/nose is up with neck stretched. I am not sure I understand why but the alternative ...with head level/down...is not good. The first gauge we use is;... the ears should be touching or horizontially level with the top of the neck behind the head...at least. (Watch a natural nursing calf to see the upward position the calf gets into. Often they will sway down/slanted backwards to get the head into a upward tilt position....the amount of tilt..depends on the height of mom/udder and calf). The top of the nipple/cap/bottle rim should be pressing on the nose...is another gauge. If you will note ...the more pressure you put on the rim against the nose....the more he will tilt up his head.....generally.

Additional thoughts...FWTW.

[preston39]

Thank you for your great post. That helps us green horns out a bunch. Thanks milkmaid! Just had a cow reject her calf and I'm scrambling to save this little bugger. I'm sure i have made many mistakes but its not from lack of trying. People like you giving your knowledge out for free after hours of sweat, blood and the hard work is really appreciated.

======
If mom has milk...put her in the head catcher and make her let him nurse.(check for any abnormal udder conditions) If she kicks place a large cotton rope/strap just below/touching the udder in front of her back legs. Tie it off. Give her a treat while in the catcher. Some soy hulls will works. Do that first and while she is eating introduce the calf. Usually, 3/4 days (2x each) will get them to accept the calf.

[Dixieangus]

well my calf died monday and i got another calf and put him and mom in the stall and she took him without hesitation.thank the lord for good cows