Advice to get a calf to take bottle...

Anybody have any advice on how to get a newly-separated calf to take bottle? I have two calves - both about 1-2 weeks old - that were separated this weekend. They haven't quite figured out that the bottle has the good stuff. I tried the forceful method with no luck. Also tried the sit and see if they catch on method - still no luck. Anybody have any tricks on how to get them to take the bottle?

stick the bottle in the mouth and squirt the milk in. If they are hungry they will get the idea.
Stradle the calf or get a partner and shove the bottle in the mouth and gently squeeze the mouth around the bottle.
or
again straddle said calf, shove the bottle in and rub his head and muzzle area
be persistant and don't give up.
Good luck
Remember clean hands and use a good 20% milk protien milk replacer and not soy. more expensive but better in the long run.

I have had a few very stubborn calves.

Get straddle of its back with his backside against a fence panel so that he cannot back up. Put your left hand under the chin, thumb in left side of mouth and middle and left fingers in the right side. Pull the head against your stomach. Hold the bottle in the right hand and with the nipple in his mouth. Squeeze the milk in and don't let the neck down. The calf has no choice but to swallow. Let it breath after it swallows and then squeeze more milk in. If it starts to draw on that bottle, relax a little of the pressure. Usually by the fourth feeding like this, they are after that bottle.

I never have tubed a calf. I have never lost a calf either.

backhoeboogie":1kdmsl75 said:

I have had a few very stubborn calves.

Get straddle of its back with his backside against a fence panel so that he cannot back up. Put your left hand under the chin, thumb in left side of mouth and middle and left fingers in the right side. Pull the head against your stomach. Hold the bottle in the right hand and with the nipple in his mouth. Squeeze the milk in and don't let the neck down. The calf has no choice but to swallow. Let it breath after it swallows and then squeeze more milk in. If it starts to draw on that bottle, relax a little of the pressure. Usually by the fourth feeding like this, they are after that bottle.

I never have tubed a calf. I have never lost a calf either.

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Would like to add one other thing that will help. Keep old nipple around it is softer and a bigger hole in it. After they learn go to the more firm and smaller hole.

I have never tubed a calf either. Did not know what it was until started reading this board.
I am feeding twins now until I think the mother can take care of them or they quit taking the rubber teat.

I had a cow die last spring after calving. I kept the calve up and bottle fed it until it would take the bottle. I then turned it out with the herd. I would ride the atv to the pasture with two bottles of milk replacer. She was fed two bottles in the morning and then two in the late evening. She never scoured and did very well. She finally took up with a calve friend and that calf's mother let her suck I then quit bottle feeding. She is the same size as the rest of the calves her age. I have raised calves in the past and had a lot of troubles I think that I was not giving them enough milk. I did what the other posters did to get her on the bottle.

Thanks guys! After alot of back straddling, nipple-squeezing, and a sore back, both calves have taken atleast one good feeding so far. Thanks for the suggestions....

It will get easier each time. They'll be after that bottle soon enough. Get a bottle rack and tie wire it to the pen. Soon you'll just drop the bottle in and pick it up when empty.

After a few years I found out the success of feeding a calf lies in properly preparing the equipment.

Starting in the house, take your bottle and make sure the nipple is securly attached. Tighten it as much as possible without stripping the threads. Now turn the EMPTY bottle upside down and firmly grab the nipple kind of like a hammer. Now go to the back door, open it, and as hard as you can, throw the bottle away. Now go and find a pail to put the milk in and let the calf drink out of that.

I know that's not the advice your looking for but I thought this was a good place to bring it up. A dairy owner was telling us that their calves go straight to the pail. They're not allowed to suck the cow,not even for the initial collostrum. We tried it last year on two calves ( an abandoned twin and one with a mother with no milk). Man what a difference. Not only was it easier to get them to take it but it takes no time at all to get them fed.

By the way we kept out bottles. If a calf were to get sick and start to go downhill I would think drenching might be neccesary.

Interesting "Train" -- I thought the sucking reflex was the only action (other than tubing) to close off the little flapper to get the colostrum (and then milk) into the true stomach for the calf to utilize all the nutrition most efficiently... I wonder what efficiency and nutrients are lost with pail training right off the bat?

Perhaps it's just different strokes for different folks. We'll stick with the bottle and yep, rigging a little hanger that doesn't allow them to headbutt the bottle of the old wooden fence rail works just fine while I'm onto my other chores.

DavisBeefmasters":1p2koyg6 said:

Interesting "Train" -- I thought the sucking reflex was the only action (other than tubing) to close off the little flapper to get the colostrum (and then milk) into the true stomach for the calf to utilize all the nutrition most efficiently... I wonder what efficiency and nutrients are lost with pail training right off the bat?

Perhaps it's just different strokes for different folks. We'll stick with the bottle and yep, rigging a little hanger that doesn't allow them to headbutt the bottle of the old wooden fence rail works just fine while I'm onto my other chores.

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Yup, that's what I have been told. Bottles or buckets with the nipple to get the "sucking" thing goin.

CKC1586":212i75tf said:

DavisBeefmasters":212i75tf said:

Interesting "Train" -- I thought the sucking reflex was the only action (other than tubing) to close off the little flapper to get the colostrum (and then milk) into the true stomach for the calf to utilize all the nutrition most efficiently... I wonder what efficiency and nutrients are lost with pail training right off the bat?

Perhaps it's just different strokes for different folks. We'll stick with the bottle and yep, rigging a little hanger that doesn't allow them to headbutt the bottle of the old wooden fence rail works just fine while I'm onto my other chores.

Click to expand...

Yup, that's what I have been told. Bottles or buckets with the nipple to get the "sucking" thing goin.

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I support it too. We tried the buckets back in the 70's and the calves didn't do very well. Not even on the buckets with nipples. I didn't know why at the time. I now know effective closure of their esophageal groove channels milk into the appropriate stomach (abomasum). Good closure is healthier than poor closure. Every time this subject comes up someone comes on telling people to just use buckets and we go through the arguments. I was going to just let it go this time and not bring it up. :lol: Perhaps since I learned the hard way other folks will too, eventually. Those little fellow put quite a vacuum on those nursing bottles and it is not that much trouble to drop them in a bottle rack.

Well Backhoe, if you think it's something important you shouldn't just let it go. Lot's of us on here don't have the experiance of some of you and sharing your knowledge and experiance is what makes the board what it is, so thanks for chiming in. :nod:

I've never heard of this before and I'm going to search for more information. This made me think of another question.

The calves we used this on did just fine until we took them to the sale in the fall. Now I've heard people talk about losing very young calves and saying " maybe he didn't get enough collostrum". Isn't the purpose of collostrum to supply antibodies? If so, wouldn't problems from a lack of them show up later and not that early? I'm asking because I could say " Whatever guys, my calves were just fine". But I'm thinking that if the pail system retards the proper absorbtion of nutrients from the collostrum ,that this might cause a problem for the calf down the road and I would never know about it because I've sold the animal.

Right now I'm thinking if you guys are right,and it sounds like it, I'd do the first feedings by bottle and move to the pale later. Glad I brought the pail thing up. I've learned something yet again. Now if I can stay alive another 50 years I could be a pretty smart fella. :dunce:

Train,

If you read back through the forum, you'll find a lot of lively discussions on this subject. Some believe one way, and others believe another. I have respect for folks on both ends so mostly I didn't want to go picking wounds.

There is also a great deal of discussion on collostrum. There's really no need to go back into all of it. But let me say this. My nurse cow put out a lot of it. She had to be milked down for about three days before I put split calves on her. The splits I bought were one to two weeks old and had already had theirs from the cow they were born to. I took the extra collostrum from my nurse cow and froze it in gallon zip lock bags, just in case I ever needed it. Had a person on this forum take a gallon and I was glad to help. I still have a little if someone else in this proximity gets in a bind. Some prefer store bought and some prefer natural. Whatever suits everyone is fine with me.

Train I am glad you were successful with your calves. Some folks aren't. msscamp and milkmaid have both made some good contributions to this subject as have others. Search the threads if you are interested in researching it. THere is a lot of good info in the historical discussions on this.

One more thing. I haven't raised thousands on a bottle/bucket like some dairy folks have. I don't exactly know how many I have raised and there is no way I can remember back to an accurate count. All I can do is swag about it. I can brag that I have never lost one. Knock on wood. I hope to never do any again but you never know. I believe nurse cows are the absolute way to go if you are going to get into raising calves like this.

Long ago I raised bottle calves. For the few that would not
nurse the bottle. I would take two fingers dip in milk or
molasses syrup and put the fingers into calf's mouth. When they
got used to my fingers I would lower my fingers into milk
bucket and they continued sucking. I had grown cows that would
walk up to me and suck my fingers if I extended my hand to them.
Strange but it works.
R.T.

We have had some that absolutely would not take a bottle or bucket and we had to tube feed. This was on newborns that had lost their mamas.I don't like to do this but sometimes its necessary. Calves that have had their colstrum from their mamas are different story, they can usually be coaxed by the methods listed above by other posters. If ( big if) I ever decide to take a few babies to raise i'm going to get me a good nurse cow and let her do the work. She's a lot better equipped than I am.

Angus/Brangus":3uiy2qnt said:

Another suggestion (originally from NovaTech) that works, is to straddle the calf and with your hand, place about the equivalent of two teaspoons of sugar on its tongue and then immediately follow with the nipple/bottle making sure that milk is coming out. They hate the feeling of that sugar texture in their mouth and the milk relieves it.

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I must have missed Nova's post. This is a new one for me to try, if ever get there again.

If I ever have to do it again I'll make a trip to the sale barn and try and buy and old nurse cow, and maybe a couple other calves to go with it.
At the price of replacement and extra feed there is just no way to come out. Then if you add your time you could have that steak delivered by a waiter at a really nice restaurant.

for the babies that just dont quite get it for the first couple of times,i set on a dirtbike stand that my son made, or a 5 gallon bucket, i put the calf in a kinda head lock with my left arm on my left side and poke my fingers of my left hand inbetween his jaws to open em up, and give the bottle to them, very few times have i had to do much more than that to get them to nurse, we did have one that had what i call the dummy tongue, he would stick it out and fight the bottle, we tubed him for the better part of a week, then one day my husband tried him and he sucked that bottle like he had been doing it forever. some just need a little guidance to the bottle, and take to it like a duck in water....its after they eat the botttle and they still want more, and they root and butt ya and suck your shirts, jackets....maybe even wipe thier butts on ya....but its all good, wouldnt have it anyother way.. :nod:
samm

I've had some success with giving calves that won't suck a shot of Vitamin B orally. I just squirt 2-3cc in their mouth, wait about 15-20 minutes and then give it a try. A vet told me sometimes that can stimulate their appitite and get them to start sucking, although I wonder the way they roll their old tounge around after giving it to them they just want that foul taste out off their mouth. It must taste horrible. Good Luck