teach bottle calf to drink water

[crossbreed curt]

hi every one ! i have a 2 week old bottle calf i am trying to get him to drink from a bucket, any advice or tips i can use ? also how long do i have to give him milk replacer ? tia

 

[bigbull338]

you normally bottle feed a calf 6 to 8wks.or until he is consuming 3 to 4lbs of feed a day.as for water you can feed him a bottle of water after his milk.when i raise calves thats what i do.

 

[Beefy]

i think i'm a tad dislexic b/c i was expecting this to be about teaching a calf to drink bottle water. and i was just curious to see what was said.

 

[MikeC]

hi every one ! i have a 2 week old bottle calf i am trying to get him to drink from a bucket, any advice or tips i can use ? also how long do i have to give him milk replacer ? tia

Last couple I raised on the bottle weaned themselves after they started hitting the feed. I just walked in with a bottle one morning and they didn't want it.

 

[dun]

If you have a bucket of clean fresh water in with it, it will find it and start drinking on it's own. Wean @ 6-8 weeks but only if it's eating a couple of pounds a day of high quliaty calf starter grain

dun

 

[Bez!]

hi every one ! i have a 2 week old bottle calf i am trying to get him to drink from a bucket, any advice or tips i can use ? also how long do i have to give him milk replacer ? tia

This house used to put them on replacer for 90 days minimum - use the directions on the bag. Do not cheap out!! Get the good stuff - high fat content.

You get what you pay for and there IS a difference.

We used to do this all the time.

Mix the milk replacer as if you would put it in a bottle.

Pour it in a bucket.

Back the calf into a corner.

Straddle the calf.

Put some liquid on your fingers.

Stick your fingers in the calf's mouth.

Spread your fingers as the calf sucks.

Force the head into the bucket.

Keep the calf sucking as you hold the head in the bucket.

Once in a while, force the nose and everything under the surface of the liquid.

Only for a second!! Do not want to drown it. Otherwise simply place the lips in the milk replacer. It has to be able to breathe.

Keep your fingers in the calf's mouth and keep the fingers spread so liquid will flow into the mouth as it sucks. As it sucks slowly remove your fingers.

You may have to start the calf several times during each feeding - but it will catch on.

Watch out for "bunting" or you will tip the bucket.

Do this for a few days / often only for a couple of feedings.

It will learn quickly.

Once they have really caught on - do not panick when you have set the calf on its own and it literally drives it's head into the bucket up to its eyeballs - they will not drown themselves!!

:lol: :lol:

Be aware they love to bang the bucket - so have it in something sturdy, or hold it.

After another couple of days you will be done.

Wife and kids - long time ago - never put a calf on a bottle - they did them all with a bucket.

Be advised the calf does not need plain old water at this early age it only needs milk replacer. In fact I do not ever remember a calf willingly take a drink of plain water at this young an age.

I think that is everything - if I have forgotten a piece of the technique you will either get it from someone else or learn it on your own. They are quite resiliant - not made of china.

Bez!

 

[backhoeboogie]

Hopefully you are not trying to get the calf to drink replacer out of a bucket. If you are, nutrition will not get to the right stomach. There has to be vacuum which causes the calf to take the replacer to the right place. You can read about it on the net. If you are trying the bucket for replacer, you'd better get on the net and read about what you are doing wrong.

 

[Bez!]

Hopefully you are not trying to get the calf to drink replacer out of a bucket. If you are, nutrition will not get to the right stomach. There has to be vacuum which causes the calf to take the replacer to the right place. You can read about it on the net. If you are trying the bucket for replacer, you'd better get on the net and read about what you are doing wrong.

Truth has been spoken - I have been reminded that we fed straight milk at the time.

We learned this at the St. Hyacinthe University Animal Hospital - vet college in Quebec.

Milk replacer came out of buckets hung with a nipple on them.

Wife would put the buckets on a 2x6 and then the calves would run to their own bucket - heaven help her if one of them went to the wrong bucket! Mayhem for the 20 or so animals she looked after.

Bez!

 

[dun]

Hopefully you are not trying to get the calf to drink replacer out of a bucket. If you are, nutrition will not get to the right stomach. There has to be vacuum which causes the calf to take the replacer to the right place. You can read about it on the net. If you are trying the bucket for replacer, you'd better get on the net and read about what you are doing wrong.

I guess most of the dairys around here have been doing it wrong for all these years. Most of them train them to drink replacer from a bucket when they're about a week old. Surprising how well those heifers grow when not getting the nutrition to the right stomach.

dun

 

[Bez!]

Hopefully you are not trying to get the calf to drink replacer out of a bucket. If you are, nutrition will not get to the right stomach. There has to be vacuum which causes the calf to take the replacer to the right place. You can read about it on the net. If you are trying the bucket for replacer, you'd better get on the net and read about what you are doing wrong.

I guess most of the dairys around here have been doing it wrong for all these years. Most of them train them to drink replacer from a bucket when they're about a week old. Surprising how well those heifers grow when not getting the nutrition to the right stomach.

dun

Dun

I read what you posted and called a neighbour - a fairly large dairy guy to ask - just this morning - caught him in the barn. He does it as you say - not doubting you one bit - just that I wonder if we fed as per an old wives tale.

Seems we did! Had quite a laugh about it. Our tit pails were efficient, but at the same time we simply had a chuckle about it.

He told me he has never - in over 50 years of dairying - ever used a bottle after day one. Puts them on a bucket right away.

In fact he simply uses a big wash tub and all the calves in each small pen drink at the same time. The calves are all close in size - so competition is not truly a problem. Another myth - that we followed - debunked in my opinion.

We no longer bother with calves if there is no cow for them - they are just a time waster - so we toss them immediately if there is no wiling mother on the place.

I am sure there will be a storm of opinion - and you may have caused it. :lol: :lol: :lol:

Bez!

 

[ctlbaron]

I don't use a nipple and our calves do just fine. We did a little test last year with nipple vs. bucket(no nipple) using the same milk replacer and calf starter. No detectable difference in growth or health complications. So much easier and faster to feed from a bucket.

 

[backhoeboogie]

Hopefully you are not trying to get the calf to drink replacer out of a bucket. If you are, nutrition will not get to the right stomach. There has to be vacuum which causes the calf to take the replacer to the right place. You can read about it on the net. If you are trying the bucket for replacer, you'd better get on the net and read about what you are doing wrong.

I guess most of the dairys around here have been doing it wrong for all these years. Most of them train them to drink replacer from a bucket when they're about a week old. Surprising how well those heifers grow when not getting the nutrition to the right stomach.

dun

They will survive, and grow. The replacer will eventually get to the right place. It just won't be was good as it should be.

I cannot recall the name of the flap that opens. msscamp or milkmaid may get in here and name it. Beginners especially need to realize the vacuum and neck position opens the flap that puts the milk in the right stomach of the calf. Otherwise it will go to the rumen as if it was water.

If its a matter of holding the bottle, the wire holders can be purchased or you can build a bottle holder very easily.

 

[ctlbaron]

If you tube a calf, which stomach is it going in? If there is that much difference in a bottle and drinking from a bucket why wouldn't the bottle calves be noticably better than a calf that drinks from a bucket in 6 weeks time?

 

[backhoeboogie]

If you tube a calf, which stomach is it going in? If there is that much difference in a bottle and drinking from a bucket why wouldn't the bottle calves be noticably better than a calf that drinks from a bucket in 6 weeks time?

There is a noticeable difference. One tube feeding may not make much difference, but I'd want to get the first milk to the right stomach asap since time is so important.

The calf needs grain and feed to properly develop its rumen - and water. If milk replacer goes there, the rumen doesn't develop properly or as well. The difference really starts to show after its been off the bottle a couple of months.

 

[backhoeboogie]

The simple way to figure this out is to go out on the net and search. There is info out there on developing a calf's digestive system. Don't take my word for it, go look. Don't take the word of someone who has been doing it wrong all their life either. Do what is best for the calf. If someone doesn't care what's best for the calf, so be it.

 

[ctlbaron]

Sounds like hogwash to me. I've raised bottle calves off and on for 25 years. I can't see any difference in the preformance of these calves at all. I would say 90% of the dairy people I know don't use a nipple. As long as it works well for me I'll just keep doing it wrong.

 

[backhoeboogie]

First ones I raised 29 years ago, I did right but that was by accident. Then I started doing it wrong too. Then I learned better. The funny thing is with bottle racks and individual chutes for the calves, it is just about the same effort. The only thing more cumbersome is washing the bottles is a bit more difficult than buckets.

 

[msscamp]

If you will scroll down to the section headed "rumen development - conditions for bloat" the article states that it is preferable for milk and milk replacers to stay out of the rumen. This is accomplished by the esophageal groove which is activated by the calf's suckling, and is not activated using a bucket.


http://www.merricks.com/tech_bloat.htm

 

[crossbreed curt]

Thanks for the advice.

 

[crossbreed curt]

Thanks for the advice.