Bottle Baby Advice Needed!

[SCLeppyLvr]

My older daughter thinks the calf has diarrhea, really green but not totally watery (still has some texture). I had not been able to check her yet, but we cut back on her grain, she didn't get any last night or this morning because she still had some from yesterday morning. I am thinking I will cut back on the grain to feed once a day (or every other day) to about half a gallon, and focus her more on eating hay since she doesn't seem to eat much hay anyways, it takes her several days to eat half a flake. Also have two pouches of calf electrolytes, do I put one whole pouch in a bottle of water???? Other suggestions anyone????

 

[WildRoseBeef]

She's probably just picky then. They get like that if they're fed too much of the good, rich stuff, they'll pick through the feed eating what they like and leaving the rest. I think cutting back the grain is good. Does she have access to grass at all? That may also be why she's not eating her hay and grain as much as you'd like. It will also explain the diarrhea-like greenish poop, completely normal when and if she's on fresh pasture.

 

[SCLeppyLvr]

yes in her paddock is fresh wild grass/cheat grass, and with all the wet weather we are having it is staying lush and growing. I went back to giving her 3.5 cups starter which is equivalent to almost .25 gallons 2 times a day or .50 gallon a day. And she seems to be eating more hay this way, so I think I will just leave her here for a bit. I gave her 2 quarts of electrolytes yesterday also. She seems to be back to normal now. Haven't seen any new watery poop in her pen. Just wish this rain/snow crap would stop !

 

[SCLeppyLvr]

is it best to wean at around 4 months of age or can you wean earlier with no ill effects??? and how do you do it when it IS time??? reduce bottles to one 2 qt once a day or split a 2qt bottle feeding into 1 qt twice a day??? Best advice anyone????

 

[WildRoseBeef]

You can wean at 3 months, but no less than that. The best way to wean is to add more water to the replacer solution, NEVER reduce the amount given. But, you can reduce it IF you water it down more and more progressively over a few weeks. So, instead of giving the calf the solution you always mix as mentioned on the package, you just reduce the powder and increase the water in the formula. Do it gradually until you're feeding just about nothing but water to the calf in the last couple feedings--or the last day of bottle/bucket feeding.

 

[SCLeppyLvr]

new question... i have been admittedly negligent in the halter training area. I have been trying to just make her comfortable with our presence in her pen by petting her a lot when feeding her bottle and while she eats her grain. We brush her and spray fly spray on her and brush her face and she seems okay with that, but now i am not sure how to go about the halter training because when she sees the halter she backs up and runs away. the only other thing i am worried about is we cannot clean her shelter or pen very well because she head butts the "barrow" and will freak out and run around bucking, which makes the situation very dangerous. You definatley don't try it alone! At least with two people one can try to distract her while the other cleans. And the last thing is, I went out the other day to fix her feeder (it is a galvanized feeder that hangs on the fence by use of heavy gauge wire tying it to the rails) because the wire broke, i took some baling twine out there to fix it/tie it up better, and when i went into her pen she flipped out on me and started butting me and when i tried to push her away and tell her no she just came back harder. I kept my ground and kept trying to push her away and she started swishing her tail and bowing don at me keeping me by the gate, i decided something about me or the situation was bothering her so i decided to just go back out, but she alomost wouldn't let me get the gate open. I was actually a little shook up by this little heifer, i felt like an idiot. I have been going over it in my head what could have been worng, was it not having a bottle for her? was it the twine in my hand? or maybe it was because i just had my hair colored that day and she smelled the perfume of the dye? or maybe the pure and simple fact that my hair was blonde RED and brown, maybe the colors were freakin her out??? i notice she doesn;t like my daughters hot pink shorts or y husbands neon green t shirt, she acts a little edgy about those things. but then I have worn a bright pink (neon) pink shirt out there to feed her and she doesn't seem to care? Do they see in color? does anyone have advice on what i can do to nip this in the butt NOW before she is 500 pounds of nasty???? OH! and she has kicked me twice, not hard, but has nicked me both times!!!

 

[jhm47]

The calf is basically playing rough with you. Butting the wheelbarrow and kicking up her heels is just her way of playing. If there were another calf with her she'd be head-butting it and they would be playing rough with each other. It most likely has nothing to do with your hair or perfume. The fact that she is more reserved with extremely bright things like your daughter's hot pink shorts or hubby's green t-shirt is most likely because they are extremely bright and may possibly intimidate her a bit.

Now---a word of advice: Making a pet out of an animal like this is best left to those of us who are experienced with cattle. Your heifer is getting bigger, and she's beginning to test you to establish dominance. Cattle have a definite "pecking order" within a herd, and because she has no other cattle around, she's focused on you as her herdmate. She will continue to test you till one or the other of you establishes dominance. You must find a way to show her who's boss while she's still small, or you will have a much harder time when she gets bigger, and bigger she will get! I certainly hope she's either polled or dehorned, or you will soon have a bigger problem by a factor of 10X.

As to halter breaking---Get her backed into a corner and put the halter on. Tie her up, and let her stand for several hours till she's thirsty and hungry. Then lead her to water and feed. Tie her up again, and repeat till she's willing and ready to follow you wherever YOU want to go. Might take the better part of a week. Oh, and --- Good Luck!

 

[happy acres]

X2! Make her see you as "boss cow " now or you will have trouble ahead!

 

[SCLeppyLvr]

any words of advice on best techniques to use against a pushy calf, she always pushes in on us and gets all up in our business when we come in to feed her bottle. we always push her chest (like you do with a horse) and say "BACK Dixie" (that's her name... Dixie) and it doesn;t seem to matter, she just pushes right back in on us. Gets between you and the gate when you're trying to latch it after coming in her pen, and then she kinda dances around you til you give her the bottle. I have not intentionally tried to let her get this way, i have always pushed her back since the day we got her, so i am not sure what else to do.

 

[WildRoseBeef]

She definitely sounds like she just wants to play with you, but in a way that is quite rough and something that you are obviously not accustomed to. It sounds like you weren't firm enough with her to get her to stop goofing around like you did. You made the situation worse by pushing her away. She wanted you to push back, and that's exactly what you did, and is exactly what made her more excited and "aggressive" towards you. You also mentioned you backed off or tried to back out. This is another wrong thing to do. Even to a young calf, this is a sign of submissiveness to that calf and shows to that young heifer that you are the weak one and she is the leader. Your obvious fear of her is also something she knows all too well about and will take advantage of. All of these things are what is creating the problem you already have.

You need to establish dominance with that heifer and let her you know YOU are the boss and you do not tolerate her bad habits. Don't go messing with her head any more because that just encourages her to head-butt you. Do not show fear nor try to back down when she gets rough with you. NEVER back away when she approaches you!! If you are going to push her, push her at her shoulder and keep pushing--do NOT push her away then back off--until you either have her on the ground on her side, or if you get to chasing her away from you. This is the very thing that cattle do amongst each other to establish dominance, and may seem rough and harmful if you are going to be acting that way, but really you are telling the heifer in "Cow" that you are the boss and are not to be messed with.

I don't know the heifer at all and what her flight zone is around you or anybody else (I don't even remember how old she is--three months, is it?), but I know that simply "telling" her no isn't going to be enough especially now that she knows what you are like around her. I suggest that you have a much stronger emphasis on the "No" and be really firm to borderline aggressive when she tries to push you around again. Don't be afraid to growl or snarl something at her--even if you have to use a bit of coarse language--nor to act aggressive towards her where you instil a bit of shock and fear into her enough to teach her to back off and leave you alone. I know it sounds rough and mean and that, but you really need to do something about this heifer's behaviour before it's too late. Hitting her over the snout with a stick or piece of PVC pipe should be used only as a last-ditch effort to establish dominance.

I know you don't want her to be afraid of you, but sometimes fear is a good way to gain respect, especially in the cow world. There may be other ways to train and tame cattle like what is done in natural horsemanship to train and "break" horses, but there's not much out there--nothing to that is as much worth as all the information out there to naturally train horses--to show what the best way to tame a older calf or adult bovine without using fear-based training and a little violence. BUT, always remember to never show fear, don't allow yourself to get shaken up, and never back off when you try to push back. When you start pushing, keep pushing (no matter what kind of pushing it is, whether it's man-handling the heifer or pushing her by keep getting into her flight zone) until she is the one that submits, and herd her around the pen until you see her head drop and/or she doesn't try to follow you or chase you back.

Ideally, too, if she's housed alone, you might want to find a friend for her so that she's not lonely all the time with only you as her playmates.