???'s about my new angus bull calf with eating

[arabianequine]

I got him at about a week old. He was sick....had scours at a min. Seems he kicked whatever he had now. When he was sick he would eat his 2 bottles a day but took 4-5 feedings.

Now he is about 2 1/2 weeks old and since last sat. he all the sudden started eating or wanting to eat full bottles. I did give him scour meds and gatorade diluted with water. Keo-pectate a few times...took his temp etc.

So anyways starting last sat. he is wanting to eat full bottles 4-5 times a day now....which is good and means he is feeling better. More active and such too. I have been giving him 3 with milk but more diluted so I put 5-6 oz a milk replacer per bottle. He is getting a 1-2 oz extra that way. I also have been giving him a gatorade water bottle too....so he is drinking 2 gallons a day. Is this bad? Sometimes he starts mooing just a few hours after I fed him. I have been making him wait trying to anyways like 8 hours at least does not always work so well. He is right out side our bedroom and he is loud lol.

I started putting out a very small amount of grain....now that his poop is back too normal. I though maybe that would help tide him over till next feeding.

What are you thoughts? Is my calf the only starving one out there? Could he be that big he needs more then normal. He is pretty tall.

 

[andbab]

Is he by himself? It could be that he is just lonely and wants more attention.

 

[nok13]

how about moving him to bucket feeding? a male intact bovine? better bucket then bottle. try leaveing him some hay and feed, not sure about bovines but with caprines (goats) bottle fed babies start feed earlier then if they were left with momma...

also, probably every time he moos u come to him (like any mother shoudl for her baby) but he is probably lonely since they are herd animals. do u have any other pet that can be with him? at least for the moment? or try leaving a radio for him . i kid u not. we used to use that for our calves in the baby house dairy.

jsut ideas, im not a cow expert here... jsut caught my eye.

 

[farmchick897]

I'm bottle feeding a 2 week old Black Angus calf too, he was a twin and mother rejected him. He is being fed 3x per day - 3 pints with not the full cup of milk replacer. I would say you are feeding too much and he might scour on you. Start grain too, stick it in their mouth so they learn to eat it. Good luck!

 

[arabianequine]

I know they need a min. of 2 bottles a day.....that is 4qts. 4qts is one gallon of milk per day. 3 pints a day is not enough at all.

He came here sick and with the scours. He is much better now and I have dropped off the gatorade water bottle a few days ago.

He is getting 3 bottles a day and I divide his milk replacer ration between those 3 bottles so he is not getting anything extra but some water.

When calves feed off their moms they sometimes drink between 2-4 bottles a day that is 2 quart bottles but they need a min. of 2/two quart bottles a day when on replacer. Replacer is pretty expensive and really rich. I would have no problems giving more fresh cow milk if I had it and they were use to having it from the beginning. I would have a limit though probably just 3 bottles a day.

Thanks for the help.

 

[farmchick897]

3 pints per feeding x 3 is more than a gallon per day. But I also don't put in as much milk replacer so it's not as rich.

 

[arabianequine]

Perfect, 3 pints just stuck I guess . My replacer bag says 8 ounces a x2 a day. So I am giving 5, 5, and 6 in a two quart bottle. I am not new to raising calves, just wanted to know if others had big calves that were wanting to eat so much too and their thoughts.

He has grain but not really interested yet. I keep trying. I did not add that till I got his scours under control but I thought it might help keep him full longer.

 

[aprille218]

Calf starter instead of grain would be better for him. Also access to hay or pasture is good. You can feed more than the bag recommends but you need to work up to it gradually. Usually the directions on the bag are just enough to get them through till they are eating feed/ solids. We always feed our bottle babies more than that so they end up looking more like they would if they still had mom.

 

[nok13]

i once had someone give me something called rumen bio something or other , it was from the states, but given to me by the number one goat herd/cheese person in the area here, it was like a rumen starter or something for kids and or sick goats ... like a paste (we used to jsut try to 'stead' cud from a goat and 'translplant' to get the rumen develped in an orphan kid or ill goat... if they dont start grain early, or have digestive problems like scours... here in large dairies they tend to use self feed/nipple buckets then the calves regulate themselves more or less; also, the milk replacer always had a different amount for bottle vx bucket... also for sheep and goat milk replacers...