calf not gaining weight

[Anonymous]

I had posted a question about this calf not wanting to take bottle when we got her at 10 days old, she is 6 wks now & doing fine. My question this time is, at only 6 wks, even though she is eating over 2 lbs of calf starter grain a day, should I keep giving her bottles or is she okay to wean. I thought I'd keep giving her bottles cause she doesn't seem to be putting on any weight. How long til she should be showing an increase in weight? Also, she is kept in a stall about 8'x20', I let her out one time and she walked right through a five strand fence, I let kids tie her out on rope about 15' long everyday so they can clean stall and groom her and such, but does she need to be in bigger pen so she can get some excercise or for any other reasons?

 

[Anonymous]

With that quantity of calf starter, good hay and fresh water she should be fine to wean, but we usaully fed replacer till they were 8 weeks and were eating 2 pounds of replacer a day. Concerning the growth issue, unless you have actaully weighed her or taped her, she may be fooling you as to how much weight she has gained. When you see a calf everyday or several times a day you can't accurately judge their growth. Some calves are slower growning then others. Either way her or tape her once a week for a couple of weeks and you'll probably see a difference. Although a cattle weighing tape is habdy, a tailors measuring tape will work for reference.

dunmovin farms

> I had posted a question about this
> calf not wanting to take bottle
> when we got her at 10 days old,
> she is 6 wks now & doing fine.
> My question this time is, at only
> 6 wks, even though she is eating
> over 2 lbs of calf starter grain a
> day, should I keep giving her
> bottles or is she okay to wean. I
> thought I'd keep giving her
> bottles cause she doesn't seem to
> be putting on any weight. How long
> til she should be showing an
> increase in weight? Also, she is
> kept in a stall about 8'x20', I
> let her out one time and she
> walked right through a five strand
> fence, I let kids tie her out on
> rope about 15' long everyday so
> they can clean stall and groom her
> and such, but does she need to be
> in bigger pen so she can get some
> excercise or for any other
> reasons?