Need Advice, First Bottle Calf, Already Read Milkmaids Info

[Running Arrow Bill]

Help! LOL! I've already read the extensive thread by Milkmaid. Very good info!

Here's our situation:

One of our first calf heifers we bought who was already bred, had a heifer last month bred by a top bull and managed to step on her soon after she was born and rejected the calf which resulted in a broken leg. Took calf to Vet who did surgery on her and kept her for 10 days. Heifer was bottle fed from day one since mama rejected the calf (and we didn't have any nurse cows).

We started with colostrum at day one. Then started with milk replacer (24/20) and calf took bottle well with 2 quarts 2X a day and had normal BM's and urine output.

She is now 4 weeks old and still on bottle.

Question: When can we introduce her to feed and gradually wean her off daily bottle feedings? Type of calf feed to use? She has free access to quality hay and grass if she wants it.

Note: it would be extremely difficult for us to continue bottle feeding her for much longer and am wondering if we can put some calf feed (type?) in with her along with pan of water (while weaning her off bottle)??

Any concise information anyone and/or Milkmaid can give us will be greatly appreciated!!

Thanks,
Bill

 

[dun]

We start them on a good calf starter grain mix a couple of days and wean them around 8 weeks but the have to be eating a couple of pounds a day of the calf starter before we wean. Then keep them on on grain till about 6 months gradually increasing the grain amount to around 1 1/2-2% of their weight as they grow.

 

[Lucky_P]

Agree w/ dun.
I start putting out a small amount of a good quality PALATABLE(if they won't eat it, it doesn't matter what the protein level, etc. is) calf starter ration from Day One. Every time I feed or just pass by the calf's pen/stall, I cram a handful of feed in the calf's mouth. If they don't eat what I've put out in a couple of days, I remove it and replace with some fresh feed (so start out with small amounts).
Once the calf is consuming 1.5-2.0 lbs of feed per day, you can stop bottle feeding (cold turkey) and up their grain ration pretty quickly, up to 5 lb/day and then increasing the amount from there, as they grow.
I want 'em off the bottle as soon as possible - by 4-6 weeks of age, if they're eating adequately - that bottle deal is the most time consuming and expensive part of raising one.
A good grain-based starter ration is really more important for getting rumen function jump-started than hay or grass; most dairy folks, anymore, don't feed hay or graze developing heifers younger than 2 months of age - studies have shown that long-stem fiber/roughage in those younger calves actually impedes rumen development, compared to calves on a starter ration only.

 

[Chris H]

Make sure she has fresh water available. That should be available at day 1. Dun & Lucky_P gave excellent advice about feed.