OT - Tricks to get a calf to take a bottle

Hogleg · Feb 6, 2014

To keep this tractor related, I feed the cows with a 2550 JD...

Just got a 7 day old orphan charlais beef calf that is not wanting to take the bottle. Just does not seem to want to suck it. Been using a tube feeder. Calf is healthy looking and nibbling on sweet feed.

So far we have tried a goat nipple, measure the temp of the MR to keep it around 100-105 degrees, karo syrup in the nipple...

What else to try?

John

Allan in NE · Feb 6, 2014

Give him a shot of Biomyicyn(sp) to get him off dead center. It works!

Allan

ncdiesel48 · Feb 6, 2014

Have your bottle ready to go....take your index finger and rub the roof of its mouth.....it will start sucking on your finger....slowly swap your finger with the nipple and it should take. I had done with a few and it works every time. Hope that helps.

randallinMo · Feb 6, 2014

Patience, Patience......keep trying. He'll catch on after a few times. All he needs to do is take that first suck. He'll do it when he gets hungry enough. All the tube feeding is doing is making "you" feel better. He'll get dependant upon it if you continue with it. Patience.

Hogleg · Feb 6, 2014

ncdiesel - tried the finger in the mouth, will not suck on it, just chews...

Agree that tube feeding is a last resort...will keep trying. She is nibbling on sweet feed. Maybe I should remove it to make her more hungry?

John

LAA · Feb 6, 2014

If you have another wet bag cow put them together and see what happens, some calves don"t want any part of humans. Sometimes they will drink out of a bucket when they won"t suck.

johndeerefan · Feb 6, 2014

I never use a bottle. Too time consuming having to clean nipples and everything. I put it in a 3 gallon bucket. I hold it up to the calfs mouth, and of course he doesn't drink. So, I stick my fingers in the milk and then put them in his mouth w/ the bucket right under his chin. Then, after a few times and when I can tell he really likes the milk, I gradually lower my hand each time closer to the milk in the bucket. Usually within 30 minutes the calf is drinking out of the bucket on his own.

Lazy WP · Feb 6, 2014

I had one like that a few years ago. Never did get her to take a bottle. She would drink from a bucket some, but mostly ate sweet feed. I ended up feeding her out. The best tasting critter I have ever eaten!!

PJH · Feb 6, 2014

Make a sucking sound while you're messing with them. They'll perk up and start puckering, looking for something to suck. Kids and wives are best with bottle/bucket calves. Good luck!

farmerwithmutt · Feb 6, 2014

Rub his neck to induce swallowing when he
has nipple in mouth .also check temp i got
jerseys and sometimes if its too hot they will
fuss.
One other thing if they wont open there
mouth turn there head sideways same idea as
the slants bars on a feeder if a cow turns her
head there jaw opens and feed drops out
wierd but true.
and maybe if your feeding milk replacer if the
calf is drinking water and eating dry feed
sprinkle the powder on top of the feed

tomturkey · Feb 6, 2014

I have limited experience with calves, more with lambs and some with baby kittens. Did you try to tickle its butt, under the tail. A warm cloth and a few gentle rubs works very well with orphan and non suckling lambs. Simulating momma licking is what I was told. It has seemed to work for me. Anythings worth a shot, Right. good luck gobble

mkirsch · Feb 6, 2014

Can't say if I've ever seen one that got "dependent" on the tube. Either they eventually take the bottle, or they die.

Dad didn't get a tube feeder until after I left for college. Before that we would just struggle, often for hours, trying to make the stupid animal suck off the bottle. Usually they ended up dying because there was no way to get colostrum into them. They'd just lay there and let it run out the side of their mouth no matter how much you rubbed on their throat, or stuck your fingers in, or made noises...

That tube feeder saved countless calves. Usually after a couple of feedings, they perk right up and decide they want to live.

ncdiesel48 · Feb 6, 2014

Sorry never seen that not work.....

Whichester1 · Feb 6, 2014

I have raised them using a bucket with a nipple. This may be old news but mix your milk replacer with warm water. Then catch the calf, put its head between your legs and pull him/her to the nipple. Pump the nipple in the calf's mouth with your hand to let the calf know it is "milk." Mine always took off on their own after a couple of tries.

Geo-TH,In · Feb 6, 2014

I grew up on a dairy farm. My job was to take care of calfs. I heated the milk to what felt warm to the feel, not 105.

We used a nipple for calfs, nipple on side of bucket.

You may try using your thumb to teach him to how to suck. Put milk on thumb. Sometimes calfs will have brused toung. Pour a LITTLE milk in calf's mouth. Don't want milk to get in to lungs. Good luck.
George

bison · Feb 6, 2014

If a calf had the first drink from the mother it can be very difficult to make them drink from the bottle.
If the calf in question was abandoned instead of orphaned than then the cow had prob a good reason to leave it be.

I had once a premie(was maybe 15 lb), it took nearly a month of tubing before it got the sucking reflex and drank from the bottle, took another week before it stood on its own.
I have to give my wife credit for its survival cause i would've shot it.

Bill in IL · Feb 6, 2014

I would back him in a corner straddle his head and hold him steady with your legs. Then stick the bottle in his mouth and hold it there while squeezing his mouth around it. Yea a finger in the mouth works some too. Unless they are sick and don't want to drink they usually get the hint pretty quick.

I know tubing is a way to get the stuff in them and a useful too but they create saliva when they drink/chew to aid in digestion. Tubing is a one or two feeding thing or it creates other problems.

I think I would give an antibiotic cause bad eating habits are a number one sign of getting sick.

Dick2 · Feb 6, 2014

Neighbor showed us a trick to get lambs to nurse when they wouldn't nurse the ewe after they were born. He'd just take the lamb, pour a teaspoon full of whiskey down it's throat and those lambs would shake their head and go right to nursing, unbelievable as it sounds. Maybe it just wanted to do something to get the taste of the whiskey out or their throat?

Never tried that trick on a calf though.

Walt Davies · Feb 6, 2014

Do what ncdiesel48 says I learned that trick when was a kid
from my Grampa he bought me a 3 day old calf and then
proceeded to make care for it.
Walt
Ps wash your hand first so it doesn't smell like gas or oil.

Hogleg · Feb 6, 2014

Bison, Mother died a day or two after the birth and I am guessing the calf was nursing for a day or so.

Here is a pic. Calf has had extra shots to help out with what she may have not gotten enough of in the colustrum. She did get some.

Hogleg · Feb 6, 2014

Dick2,

Think my mom did that to me but never got the taste of it out of my mouth. Sure it was sour mash, my favorite!

:lol:

John

Traditional Farmer · Feb 6, 2014

You can drench the calf with some milk and don't give it too much so its hungry the next feeding time.Most of the time after a couple of drenching sessions they'll go ahead and nurse.

bison · Feb 6, 2014

(quoted from post at 12:46:09 02/06/14)
Bison, Mother died a day or two after the birth and I am guessing the calf was nursing for a day or so.

Here is a pic. Calf has had extra shots to help out with what she may have not gotten enough of in the colustrum. She did get some.

hat there calf don't look to happy,ears drooping and all.
Something is bugging that calf.
I wonder if it got some milk in the lungs, it sometimes happens when the tube goes in the breathing hole.(got to listen at the tube's end before hooking up the bag., if your hear air rushing you got the tube in the wrong pipe.
I would give it a shot of ADE and B12 vitamines.
A couple cc of trivetrin would not hurt either.

Did you check the navel?

Colostrum works only in the first 2 day's, after 2 days it is useless to feed any.

Kris A NC · Feb 6, 2014

I have heard putting molasses on the nipple will
sometimes get them going....I haven't tried it
myself, but it couldn't hurt. Saw this on Alaska
the last frontier.

Kris A NC (now IN)

chuck machinist · Feb 6, 2014

Thank you ,that's how I was taught. Never had a problem after that. Chuck

samn40 · Feb 6, 2014

I raised a holstien heifer calf that never drank milk, If I gave it mik
with a tube it scoured. So I started just giving it warm water with an
egg mixed in, did that twice a day until it started to eat meal. It
turned out to be a good cow , but strange as this may seem, It's
first calf was a heifer and it ended up in the exact same pen as the
mother had been in two years earlier, coincidence or what? and it
never drank milk! Exact same scenario.....30 eggs later and it was
eating meal and went on without any milk or substitute!.........Sam

wisbaker · Feb 6, 2014

30 years ago I worked on a dairy farm our in Western Oklahoma, heifers were
out on the range until 2-3 months before they were due (you know how that
works) ever tried running heifers straight off the range through a DeLaval
double 6 herringbone parlor? Part of my duties was calf feeding. This is
where I learned a very important fact about cows that was not part of the
animal science curriculum of Michigan State University- BEEF CATTLE, EVEN 1/2
BEEF CATTLE ARE REALLY DUMB ABOUT BOTTLES AND BUCKETS. An all-dairy calf
would be slopping up milk out of a bucket in 5 minutes tops, one of the half
Brangus you might be 15-20 minutes a feeding for two or three feedings. The
farmer I worked for was also a DVM and didn't believe in bottle feeding they
came in from the dry cow lot or off the range straight to a gang style calf
hutch and onto a bucket first day no exceptions.

bison · Feb 6, 2014

(quoted from post at 15:37:13 02/06/14) 30 years ago I worked on a dairy farm our in Western Oklahoma, heifers were
out on the range until 2-3 months before they were due (you know how that
works) ever tried running heifers straight off the range through a DeLaval
double 6 herringbone parlor? Part of my duties was calf feeding. This is
where I learned a very important fact about cows that was not part of the
animal science curriculum of Michigan State University- BEEF CATTLE, EVEN 1/2
BEEF CATTLE ARE REALLY DUMB ABOUT BOTTLES AND BUCKETS. An all-dairy calf
would be slopping up milk out of a bucket in 5 minutes tops, one of the half
Brangus you might be 15-20 minutes a feeding for two or three feedings. The
farmer I worked for was also a DVM and didn't believe in bottle feeding they
came in from the dry cow lot or off the range straight to a gang style calf
hutch and onto a bucket first day no exceptions.

ack in my old country we never used a bottle either with our dual breed dairy cows, soon after birth we would let them suck on 2 fingers, poor colostrum in their mouth between the fingers till they got the taste of it and then let them follow our hand with both fingers in their mouth into the pail to slobber it up.
After a couple feedings they would usually drink from the pail on their own.

Bradiniowa · Feb 6, 2014

You need to talk to someone that raised Brown Swiss calves. I
have seen calves near death from starving themselves waiting
for momma. More than a few times we brought calves back to
the barn from calf huts. They would literally go crazy wanting
to nurse when they were next to momma. Most would take a
bottle then but had to be near the cow trying to nurse. Didn't
even have to be it's mother, just a cow.

Frank 41 · Feb 6, 2014

My mom did what Dick2 said only she used moonshine with warm milk and sugar. If they didn't make it after that, there wasn't much hope.

OT - Tricks to get a calf to take a bottle

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