Look what's living in my garage!

[bheila]

OH PLEASE give him to me

I love raising bottle calves. The last one we had just went in the freezer last week. They are the sweetest pets ever. I had to take a calf from one of my customers because she was starving him. I just threw him in my van and home we went

 

[clport]

The first two bottle babies I raised (picture below) needed the bottle a total of two times and then they started eating out of a bucket. They would nearly knock me over when I came in their pen with it. The Carnation brand milk replacer was what they liked the best, mixed with warm water. It's certainly not cheap stuff, but I'm sure you know that. Too bad you don't have a second baby with this little bull calf. I think the company and competition helps them recover faster. Good luck! Brings back lots of happy memories for me.

(Maybelline on the left...longest eyelashes ever; Annie, as in "Little Orphan" on the right.)

 

[Haviris]

Clport those are some adorable calves!

Well my baby is back w/ his mom today, and we're crossing our fingers that things go well. Last night he mooed for the first time, I think he was talking to my dog, she'd licked him on the head, that got me thinking maybe he was ready to see his mom again and maybe his instinct to nurse would kick in. I was hessitant to do that, we'd already taken him from her once, and I didn' t want to tramatize her more by taking him away again if it didn't work. Which gave me another idea, my cow Panda is pretty good, I figured any cow would do, didn't need to be his mom, so I brought her up and tied her and waited to see what would happen, and he did it! He nursed! So we took him back to his mom, she was happy to see him, she spun around at first everytime he got to her udder, I think she thought we may be trying to trick her, but he finally found it. Now I've seen him nurse, but have no way of being 100% sure he's getting what he needs, so I can't help but worry, I won't be happy til I see a nice round belly on him. My dad's keeping a close eye, and any sign that he's not getting enough he'll be back here. I know the cow has plenty of milk, I just worry that his suck isn't strong enough. I think we should know by morning.

He wasn't fighting the bottle, he just didn't seem to have any such reflex, or really any desire to eat (or I would have tried bucket feeding). I have raised other bottle babies, and had a few fight the first few feedings, this is the first that just refused completely.

So here he is w/ mom!
(this one is while she was spinning)

Still alittle confused,

And when he finally had it!

 

[LittleMamaBigPapa]

ADORABLE!!!!!!!!!

 

[Mojo Chick'n]

hope he sticks with Mama this time

meri

 

[Eggs4Sale]

We saved two calves from a man who killed their mothers by not feeding them enough. The littlest we had to bottle feed. One day, DH decided to put in his time feeding her, so he filled up two bottles and fed her. I came into the kitchen and wondered why the tupperware container of Bisquick had gone down so much so quickly. Yes, DH had fed her two bottles of Bisquick mix! He claims she really liked it. Her name was Buttermilk, but we had to call her Mrs. Butterworth after that.

 

[Haviris]

And here are previous bottle babies that are still in my herd (or rather, are my herd). The grown cow is Panda, who I mentioned before. And the little one is Drama, she was my dad's last problem calf, I bottle raised her on goat milk for six weeks, then got the idea to see if I could put her on Panda since I'd recently sold her calf, and these are the results (and you can see why I thought Panda would be a good choice to test out the calf on)!

And Drama again,

I thought I had a pic of my steer Mickey in photobucket, but I guess not, maybe if this thread is still near the top when my new laptop battery comes in I'll post one, I know I have one on there. He was my first bottle calf, he's 14 now.

 

[Haviris]

Wow, Mrs. Butterworth, I'm glad it didn't hurt her!

I think we'll know by in the morning if things are going good w/ the baby, and then I'll try to post pics of him once they've rejoined the herd. I had fun with him (even though it was alot of work), and am suprised to realize I kind of miss him! But I'm glad to get him back to his mom!

 

[Haviris]

My dad wasn't sure he was eating enough this morning, so I went out to check on him. I'm not completely sure, he's still kind of thin and wobbly, but he's bright and alert, and we watched him nurse for a good bit. So we're still keeping an eye on him, but I really think he's going to be ok. Anyway, here is another pic for your viewing pleasure,

While I was there I took some pics of some of the other cows, this calf was born the same day, I tried to compare them to deside if the baby is filled out enough, but it wasn't much help, this one is just so much bigger!

And w/ his mom,

 

[john in wa]

I am no cow expert but can she be milked by hand? she looks strutted out really bad.