Bottle Feeding

[cowgirl_up_47]

We have a calf that was born Friday that we are bottle feeding.

My question is, How much should we be feeding her? I have looked all over and can't really find an answer. She is about 90 pounds and drinks a full bottle with no problem at all. Should she be getting more than a full bottle twice a day?

 

[LoveMoo11]

At the farm where I work, we start the dairy calves on two quarts three times a day, then reduce it to 2x in a pail after about a week. If she is acting genuinely hungry, bawling, etc. Then feed her a little more, just not so much that she gets sick. make sure to offer her hay, grain, and water after a couple weeks. Even if she doesn't seem interested at first, leave it in front of her and she will experiment.

 

[regolith]

Rule of thumb - 10% of calf weight per day, usually split into two feeds (40 kg calf gets two, 2 ltre feeds each day).


They can do well on much more milk than that - I know rearers successfully feeding 20% of calf weight in milk daily. It's not something I'd advise to an inexperienced calf rearer because of the risk of nutritional scours. Restricted milk feeding and early introduction of grain and hay appears to be safer.

 

[larryshoat]

I assume your bottle is 2 quarts . How much powder are you putting in ? You need a good all milk replacer . How cold is it where she is ?


Larry

 

[hillsdown]

by cowgirl_up_47 on Mon Jan 26, 2009 7:59 pm

hillsdown wrote:

If that little girl is 90 lbs she will need at least 3 pints twice a day ,she can probably handle 4 pints. I would start her on a small bag of calf starter milk replacer it is higher than 20-20-20 and is good for them for the first two weeks ,you can get it from your vet. Then if mom is better you can try her back on her, if not get the 20-20-20 all milk replacer and you can feed her or supplement her while she is on mom if mom doesn't have enough milk.

cowgirl_up_47 Wrote :

We gave her about 3 pints this morning and another 2 this afternoon. We plan on giving her another 4 pints tonight. She has been drinking all of it, no problem. We only have whole milk right now, so she will have to be on that until at least tomorrow.

They said they have had calves that have diarrhea from medicated milk replacer. I was just going to get non medicated.


The calf is very energetic, sucking on everything, butting, running, etc.

The cow is still down, but moving herself around. She is alert and eating and drinking. We are planning on picking her up on Thursday

.


I thought I answered it quite specifically...

2 bottles, 4 pints each will do fine for now for daily feeding ,if she desires more increase her gradually...Follow my advice on the replacer to start her out on and then continue if you need to as was stated above..

Don't forget to add fresh water access and a good calf starter ration as well as free choice leafy hay..

Do a search on bottle calves and you will find more information than you could possibly imagine. ;-)

 

[cowgirl_up_47]

by cowgirl_up_47 on Mon Jan 26, 2009 7:59 pm

hillsdown wrote:

If that little girl is 90 lbs she will need at least 3 pints twice a day ,she can probably handle 4 pints. I would start her on a small bag of calf starter milk replacer it is higher than 20-20-20 and is good for them for the first two weeks ,you can get it from your vet. Then if mom is better you can try her back on her, if not get the 20-20-20 all milk replacer and you can feed her or supplement her while she is on mom if mom doesn't have enough milk.

cowgirl_up_47 Wrote :

We gave her about 3 pints this morning and another 2 this afternoon. We plan on giving her another 4 pints tonight. She has been drinking all of it, no problem. We only have whole milk right now, so she will have to be on that until at least tomorrow.

They said they have had calves that have diarrhea from medicated milk replacer. I was just going to get non medicated.


The calf is very energetic, sucking on everything, butting, running, etc.

The cow is still down, but moving herself around. She is alert and eating and drinking. We are planning on picking her up on Thursday

.


I thought I answered it quite specifically...

2 bottles, 4 pints each will do fine for now for daily feeding ,if she desires more increase her gradually...Follow my advice on the replacer to start her out on and then continue if you need to as was stated above..

Don't forget to add fresh water access and a good calf starter ration as well as free choice leafy hay..

Do a search on bottle calves and you will find more information than you could possibly imagine. ;-)

That is what we have been feeding her, but she still seems hungry. Is it OK to feed her a bottle in the morning, half in the afternoon, and another in the evening?

A bottle is 4 pints.

I assume your bottle is 2 quarts . How much powder are you putting in ? You need a good all milk replacer . How cold is it where she is ?


Larry

The bottle is 2 quarts. Right now she is drinking regular whole milk, we haven't been able to get milk replacer yet and the vet said she would do fine on it. We will be getting milk replacer, though.

She is in our stock trailer with a heat lamp. It's been in the mid 20's to 30's overnight.

 

[hillsdown]

She is hungry because she is not getting proper milk, whole milk is 3% fat at best and we are suggesting milk replacer that is 20% fat, big difference.

I would get her out of the trailer and into a warm well ventilated area with clean bedding. Get her on proper milk tomorrow asap and do NOT over feed her in fact you should probably cut her back to 3 pints twice a day until she is used to the real deal. Then slowly increase her as was said to 4 pints twice a day, you can even add an extra feeding if need be in between the 12 hour intervals with another 2 pints.. Do it slowly and watch how she responds..

 

[larryshoat]

They said they have had calves that have diarrhea from medicated milk replacer. I was just going to get non medicated.

I really doubt that, the medication may not have been helping any, but something else caused the scours .

As HD suggested you need a good milk replacer that is 20% fat and 20% protien . If by regular whole milk you mean like you get at the store, then that really is not good enough .

Larry

 

[cowgirl_up_47]

whole milk is 3% fat at best and we are suggesting milk replacer that is 20% fat, big difference.

That's what I was thinking, but the vet keeps telling us that she will do fine on whole milk.

How should we switch her over to milk replacer? Should we do it slowly and mix with the whole milk, or just give milk replacer?


Also, should the milk replacer be medicated, or not?

 

[larryshoat]

I would probably switch it over a couple of days by mixing it with what you are feeding now . A lot of the milk available has Neomycin and Oxytetracycline in it . It won't hurt anything, but don't think that it will be a big help either .

Larry

 

[cowgirl_up_47]

We got a bag of milk replacer today. It is all milk with 20% fat and 20% protein. It is non medicated. We are going to start feeding it tonight, mixed with the whole milk.

 

[cowgirl_up_47]

We gave her 2 pints of whole milk mixed with 2 pints of the mixed up milk replacer tonight. How long should we mix them, or should we gradually reduce the amount of whole milk in it? Also, she seems to be scouring a little. This was before we fed her. She acts the same, drank her whole bottle, etc.

 

[dun]

A couple more feedings mixed like that should be adequate. For the scours I would give her a copule of the scour boluses (I can never remember their name, seems like spectra something)

 

[cowgirl_up_47]

A couple more feedings mixed like that should be adequate. For the scours I would give her a copule of the scour boluses (I can never remember their name, seems like spectra something)

The only boluses we have right now are Sustain III and Albon. The diarrhea isn't watery, it's just loose.

 

[larryshoat]

I think you're gonna need some additional fluids . Try to find an electrolyte solution, something like Deliver, feed milk 12 hr apart, offer the electrolyte solution between meals . If she will suck warm water out of bottle, do this until you find some electrolyte . As far as medicine Vetisulid and Scour Halt can be bought over the counter and do a good job . The main thing is to get some extra water in her while she is scouring .

Larry

 

[dun]

The ones I'm refering to are terramycin, the ones we have are pink. I don;t have to name handy since we haven;t used them in a while and all I have are a cople of boluses sitting on the shelf

 

[cowgirl_up_47]

I think you're gonna need some additional fluids . Try to find an electrolyte solution, something like Deliver, feed milk 12 hr apart, offer the electrolyte solution between meals . If she will suck warm water out of bottle, do this until you find some electrolyte . As far as medicine Vetisulid and Scour Halt can be bought over the counter and do a good job . The main thing is to get some extra water in her while she is scouring .

Larry

We have a few packets of electrolytes. We also have a packet of medicated milk replacer. I'm not sure what it's called. It's stronger than just medicated milk replacer and it's in an orange packet.

If we give her electrolytes now, is it too close together to give her milk again at 6:30 in the morning?

 

[larryshoat]

I think you're gonna need some additional fluids . Try to find an electrolyte solution, something like Deliver, feed milk 12 hr apart, offer the electrolyte solution between meals . If she will suck warm water out of bottle, do this until you find some electrolyte . As far as medicine Vetisulid and Scour Halt can be bought over the counter and do a good job . The main thing is to get some extra water in her while she is scouring .

Larry

We have a few packets of electrolytes. We also have a packet of medicated milk replacer. I'm not sure what it's called. It's stronger than just medicated milk replacer and it's in an orange packet.

If we give her electrolytes now, is it too close together to give her milk again at 6:30 in the morning?

It would be fine to give electrolytes now and milk at 6:30 . Give milk at 6:30 and 6:30 and fluids at noon and bedtime . I would not swich any more milk, just continue with switching to the 20/20 milk . Do not mix electrolyte heavier than recomended, if anything go lighter .

Larry