Post by saysfaa on Feb 25, 2020 9:37:42 GMT -5
Thanks all. Got her milked out a couple of times now with the help of my glamorous assistant lifting her tail. Couple of additional questions.
...
Oh last thing sorry, what is the ideal feeding routine for the heifer calf born Monday? Ive been feeding her about a litre 3x per day, gave 2l this morning and will miss lunch and give 2l this evening. She's pretty annoyed whenever the milk in the peach teat bucket runs out! I haven't offered hay or starter ration yet. Can she have the haylage I'm feeding the adults or does she need hay? She's lovely and bright and perky but quite bony.
She can take more milk (if it is straight from the cow) but the bottle/bucket is so much easier for a calf to eat from that they don't get the biofeedback that tells them they have had enough. So, it is a bit tricky to tell how much more you can give her. I would increase it gradually and watch for symptoms like loose stools and non-perky attitude - how fast depends on how comfortable you are with noticing or with interpreting symptoms. If she gets enough milk, she doesn't need calf starter. I don't have enough experience with feeding milk instead of calf starter to know how much milk that is.
She needs long stem hay. Preferably, high quality hay. The haylage won't hurt her as something to taste or nibble on but very much of it would not be good for her at this stage.