I'm looking for advice on helping a calf to nurse. My neighbor had a calf born at 2:00 pm yesterday and the cow has big tits. We saw the calf still searching for a tit his morning at 8:00 am so we had the cow in the calving pen and I milked just a couple ounces or so and got the calf to take it and then kept trying to switch it over to the tit. I'd get the tit in the mouth good, keep squeezing and know I got some milk in the calf because it gagged and then swallowed some. After a little while with me holding everything in the right spot and coaxing it to swallow, it did seem to drink a few swallows. The cow seemed to have enough with it all at that point and with both the cow and calf starting to fight me we determined that hopefully it knows where the milk is and we should let them be alone in their pen in the barn.
The calves ears are perky, and we plan to check in now and then to monitor and if we don't catch it nurse or see that she has been sucked, we'll give it colostrum supplement.
Are we doing the right thing by letting it try on its own again, should we have tried longer, and is that enough for the calf to get the idea and do it on its own once we leave it alone and it decides it's hungry?
Thanks for your feedback, I've learned a lot on Ranchers and just didn't find an old post to go off of.
The calves ears are perky, and we plan to check in now and then to monitor and if we don't catch it nurse or see that she has been sucked, we'll give it colostrum supplement.
Are we doing the right thing by letting it try on its own again, should we have tried longer, and is that enough for the calf to get the idea and do it on its own once we leave it alone and it decides it's hungry?
Thanks for your feedback, I've learned a lot on Ranchers and just didn't find an old post to go off of.