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Bottle Calf Help
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<blockquote data-quote="regolith" data-source="post: 850364" data-attributes="member: 9267"><p>Depends on the cow, the calves and what you define as 'better luck'.</p><p>If you have a nurse cow and somewhere to restrain her while putting the calves on, and you'd rather not bottle feed them till weaning, I'd definitely give it a go.</p><p>Some cows will love and feed anything at first sight. Others... well, I've never failed to convince one of my dairy cows to adopt a calf, or pair of calves, yet. But there might be a couple that I've put in the chute every day for weeks. Calves can make the transition from bottle to cow okay.</p><p>I can do what Suzie describes with two hands, just can't quite remember how. I think the key is to grip the calf with your knees, let it suck your two fingers and lead its mouth to teat, slipping the teat between those fingers, then remove fingers and squeeze teat if necessary so that the calf gets milk in its mouth. At this point, the calf discovers teat + milk + saliva is slippery and loses hold of the teat, so you do the same thing again. But if the cow stands perfectly still and the calf has brains you only have to do it two or three times and then you can stand back and leave it sucking.</p><p>If the cow wriggles or stamps every time the calf takes hold of her teat, or the calf doesn't have brains, that's a whole different matter.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="regolith, post: 850364, member: 9267"] Depends on the cow, the calves and what you define as 'better luck'. If you have a nurse cow and somewhere to restrain her while putting the calves on, and you'd rather not bottle feed them till weaning, I'd definitely give it a go. Some cows will love and feed anything at first sight. Others... well, I've never failed to convince one of my dairy cows to adopt a calf, or pair of calves, yet. But there might be a couple that I've put in the chute every day for weeks. Calves can make the transition from bottle to cow okay. I can do what Suzie describes with two hands, just can't quite remember how. I think the key is to grip the calf with your knees, let it suck your two fingers and lead its mouth to teat, slipping the teat between those fingers, then remove fingers and squeeze teat if necessary so that the calf gets milk in its mouth. At this point, the calf discovers teat + milk + saliva is slippery and loses hold of the teat, so you do the same thing again. But if the cow stands perfectly still and the calf has brains you only have to do it two or three times and then you can stand back and leave it sucking. If the cow wriggles or stamps every time the calf takes hold of her teat, or the calf doesn't have brains, that's a whole different matter. [/QUOTE]
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