Bucketing my Calf

[ericnovak]

So my calf is just starting on the bucket and he drinks just fine. But I'm a bit worried about when he drink. He basically sticks his whole nose under the milk, I guess to try and find something to suck on. He doesn't seem to be choking or anything but I try to hold his nose out of the milk to let him drink. Any tips?

-Eric

[Judith]

Your baby will be fine They all seem to dunk at first, they catch on pretty fast! I bucket feed about 40 calves 2xday and they all dunk

[topside1]

Let it ride Eric, I call it snorkeling....Seen it many a time, no need to worry, it's better than washing bottles...Congrats on your new calf....Topside

[ErinP]

Not to mention, so much faster than a bottle.
Oh, and the sort-of drowning is completely normal.

[Curtis B]

I have my first two right now, and when I got them they were on the bucket already. They have both gotten progressivly worse with slamming their noses around the inside as they finish w/the milk, more than once a bucket has been knocked of the fence dumping the milk in it. This is common right?

[topside1]

Curtis, very common violence. Two of the ones I'm now feeding are so rough I feed them on the other side of a gate, making them stick their heads slats...Expect more of the same as they get older....Topside

[ericnovak]

Great! I figured it was normal as he wasn't choking or anything, just wanted to make sure.

Thanks Topside!

[Ronney]

I got a flyer through the mail from some crowd extolling the virtues of their teats. I wasn't interested in their teats but as part of it, it gave a very good run down on why calves should be cow or calfateria reared, complete with diagrams. I couldn't figure out how to get the flyer on to the web site and eventually threw it out as another bit of paper cluttering up the dining room table. Pity because it clearly demonstrated as to why sucking is such an important part of a calf's digestive system and why bucket rearing is less than good.

Cheers,
Ronnie

[sammyd]

By suckling the body is better set to send the milk to the proper part of the stomach instead of the rumen which is inactive it goes to the omasum. It also allows the production of more saliva which acts as a buffer and is said to reduce the incidence of scours.

But either method will work. We use bottles and prefer them.