calf wont suck

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If he's drank from the cow then the problem is your nipple is not hers and neither is your milk. If he is healthy and active otherwise that is. I'd switch the milk to carnation evaporated milk. They like the taste better. It costs more but this is only a one day deal to get the calf believing you have food. Then before you begin stroke the sides of his face like your hand was a cow tongue. It gets the saliva going and the calf gets hungrier. Have him stand backed into a wall and put the nipple in his mouth after slathering it with milk. Squeeze the nipple a few times with your fingers to get the milk on his tongue and then keep the nipple in the mouth while rubbing his back end. If that doesn't work then hold the bottle with one hand and work the jaw with the other. I wouldn't tube unless absolutely necessary if he is healthy. Hope it goes well!
 
The hard part is to do what the mama cow does when she nurses her calf....provide comfort and and a sense of well being while the calf is feeding.

That being said...I have found it hard to convince the son-in-law to lick the calf's butt while I had the bottle in it's mouth. Using a smaller nipple works well too.

And that's just my two bits worth...asked for or not....Dmc
 
Re:
i straddle the calf and squeeze his neck with my legs
OK now I'm not trying to burst anyone's bubble but I don't get this "squeeze his neck with my legs" part and I have seen it stated on this board many times.

I straddle the calf but my legs are on or just behind his front shoulders which enable me to raise his head to a full 90 degree up just like when he is nursing on mamma and have good control of him.
Now that's not to say I put his head up 90 degrees to insert the nipple but instead just as soon as I insert it.

If he doesn't suck I then pull the bottle in and out of his mouth about half way several times wait for him to swallow and keep doing it until he either sucks or totally rejects it.

If he still doesn't suck and I know I must get some milk in him now I force feed him by putting the milk in a coke bottle and put it in the side of his mouth as far back as possible and raise that head straight up.

How do you raise his head if you are on his neck?

As for the radio thing.
Hint: Get a long little doggie.
 
Dear Sir,
Rarely do i see a calf raise his head 90 degrees to suck. mine tend to be more comfortable at a 45 degreeish angle. the reason i hold their neck with my legs is to control the head and keep the calf from backing away at the same time. i dont move the head around at all unless the calf is resisting, pointing his nose to the ground. i admit sometimes i straddle them the way you do but i dont have as much control if the calf is trying to get away if i am holding his shoulders with my knees. they tend to either slip frontwards or backwards. normally when i insert the nipple i have the calf's nose parallel with the ground and then tilt it up a little bit when he gets going.
 
Beefy:
Re:
Rarely do i see a calf raise his head 90 degrees to suck. mine tend to be more comfortable at a 45 degreeish angle.
I see it all the time particularly with new borns and have even seen older ones get down on their front knees so they can go straight up to avoid bending the teat and shutting off the milk flow.

If I can't hold em then they are to big and don't need to be bottled fed. I got angus, whats you got?
Might be mine are a little calmer then yours from me talking to him and listing to the radio. (DH) (DH means dry humor)
I just back em in a corner and have at it. Or just pin them against the wall.
And I always put the bottle in from the side to get it on top of their tong then move it to the front.
SL
 
Beefy":c4b8zg94 said:
Dear Sir,
Rarely do i see a calf raise his head 90 degrees to suck. mine tend to be more comfortable at a 45 degreeish angle. the reason i hold their neck with my legs is to control the head and keep the calf from backing away at the same time. i dont move the head around at all unless the calf is resisting, pointing his nose to the ground. i admit sometimes i straddle them the way you do but i dont have as much control if the calf is trying to get away if i am holding his shoulders with my knees. they tend to either slip frontwards or backwards. normally when i insert the nipple i have the calf's nose parallel with the ground and then tilt it up a little bit when he gets going.

I always start out with my legs behind the shoulders...it's just after the calf takes me on a little ride that I wind up wrapped around its neck...

Alice
 
my concern with feeding a bottle calf with its head at a 90 degree angle would be it aspirating milk leading to pneumonia. maybe we are thinking differently about our angles? to me 90 degrees would mean the calf is looking straight up, nose pointing to the sky. once they are pros at bottlefeeding this is ok as long as they can handle the flow of milk.
 
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