Calf won't Suckle! *Updated with PICS*

[rodriguezpoultry]

What are you gonna do with him once he's grown? Use him for your breeding herd? I LOVE Jerseys...

 

[Bleenie]

We sold our big bull last year so we were considering keeping him in tact for breeding. Our heifers are all Beef breeds... Black white face, brahma/angus X, a little bit of Dexter & hereford in there too. It would probably put some height in the calves..we've had some real shorties the last couple years.

 

[herefordlovinglady]

How is Phillip doing?

 

[Bleenie]

He is still doing well. We didn't feed him for a day and he still refused to take the bottle tonight. We ended up tubing him again.

He was really calm for the whole thing and swallows the tube as soon as i get it into the back of his mouth, I just hate doing it but i can't see letting him go hungry for more than a day. he is still really young & 'fragile' still. I think he's just stubborn and really lazy.

He will be 1 week old on Saturday and we're still not sure if we're going to trade him in for a different baby or not.

 

[LAMchop]

He sure is a handsome devil! Try not to get too frustrated. I've all but given up on some Swissies, and the next morning they take the bottle like they've been doing it all along. Keep trying him on the bottle, even if he snorts and flails around and falls down. I had a Swiss/Holstein cross that I called DQ, for Drama Queen. You would have thought I was feeding her something horrible instead of tasty milk.
Swissy bulls are sweeties too. They stay sane a lot longer than most dairy breeds.
Hang in there!

 

[Knight Hawk Ranch]

I am sure since you have bottle fed calves before that you know this. But here it is, just in case.

How are you holding the bottle? angled to the side or straight up and down.

The closer you can mimic the natural teat angle the better. Calves are used to nursing from a teat hanging straight down and a lot of folks get frustrated by trying to feed them holding the bottle side ways or at a 45 degree angle.

I had a friend who was attempting to bottle feed a calf, had it several days and could not get the calf to suck. It ended up being the way they were holding the bottle. As soon as the bottle was in the correct position, the calf went to town on it.

 

[Bleenie]

We have tried all angles. He will get up and nose around on us but when he finds the bottle he just moves on. I've tried holding it at an angle and even straight down.

He is a sweetie when we're not trying to feed him, lol. He runs & jumps all over the field when we let him out too so i know hes doing fine, just wish he would eat like all the other babies we've had!

 

[kw]

I had a holstein calf that gave me and my husband fits. We had to get him to drink from a bucket. Will he suck on your thumb? Or your fingers? If he'll do that, you can get him to drink from a bucket.

 

[Bleenie]

He won't suck on Anything..he just flails his tongue all over trying to spit the nipple/fingers or whatever out of his mouth.

 

[danischi24]

My job is to raise calves & I often have trouble with Belgian Blue calves. I've found that bonding them real good to you works better than anything to get them to drink. If they think you are mom, they will want to drink from you. Rubbing their foreheads, simulates a mothers lick & it works on most newborns that spit the bottle cause they want their mommas. Teasing them is also one of the best ways to get them to drink. I offer a bottle & then take it away if they try to drink & I feed a baby next to them. I put milk on my fingers, put it in the mouth & take it out immediately. I use instinct & anything/everything so it's hard for me to explain without actually being there & trying different things. One thing I've found is with many calves, trying to force them by holding the bottle in their mouths just makes them spit it out.
I'm like: Do you want this bottle? Nope sorry, you can't have it. Sure you want it? Nope, not gonna happen!
Also, if you can tie/crush any of your cows, heifers,other bigger calves... tie them, bring the baby & put the bottle by the udder so he sucks on it & stand on the same side as him. Then you just tilt the back of the bottle away from the cow so you are now feeding him next to the cow.