Snacks or Treats for calves

[countryfied2011]

Does anyone ever feed your calves treat. I realize those that have big herds probably dont. I have a 6 month old steer and heifer and the treat they get is Standlee Timothy/Alfalfa pellets that I sprinkle in their hay. They love them, but I just wondered if there is other things that they can be treated with. I occasionally treat my horses, rabbits and dogs, but I have no clue what the calves could have.

Merry Christmas

[Jcran]

We get bags of day old bread from a friend who's a supervisor for a local bread company...the calves LOVE LOVE LOVE slices of bread! Calf Crack, lol.

[Valmai]

Fruit Vegies. Every cow I have ever known would do back flips for molassas.

[SpaceCadet12364]

You can get a bag of the alfalfa cubes that people typically use for horses. Our cows love those!

If you have a bread thrift shop, usually you can get several trays of bread for like $10. Just about out of date, or slightly out of date....sometimes, when we had one near us, occasionally stuff like apple fritters would show up. We had one cow that LOVED those apple fritters! Its funny, some of them liked only the wheat bread, some liked only the white bread, and some of them didn't care either way.

[gone-a-milkin]

Cows love bananas. Try it and see.

[oregon woodsmok]

My cattle always got a small amount of grain every evening. That was their treat, and it kept them trained so I could whistle them in.

Comes in handy to have a cow that will come to a whistle if they ever get out.

When I feed grain, I feed dry COB. The cows also know the sound of grain shaken in a bucket and that will bring them running.

[Madsaw]

Wow when you said treats I thought you ment like Milky way candy bars, Ritz crackers and Cheetoos. Got one bull calf that will eat cheetoos all day long if you let him. Loves any kind of crackers. If anyone needs a trash can for a steer let me know. He might taste like cheetoos though when you eat him.
Bob

[Callieslamb]

My calves would pretty much eat what I brought to them - once they drank a whole wheelbarrow of tomato skins and seeds. They also like corn stalks, bread, pasta, peppers, carrots, celery, corn cobs, apples, and stale cookies.

[willow_girl]

Cows love bananas. Try it and see.

Yes they do! It's also fun to watch them eat.

[gone-a-milkin]

Originally Posted by willow_girl

Yes they do! It's also fun to watch them eat.

I am farm sitting for a neighbor right now. They have a red angus bull confined in their barnlot for disrespecting fences.
He has a date for freezer camp, but in the mean time I will spoil him a little.

Tonight I took about half a loaf of stale banana bread over to him as a treat.
It was hilarious to watch him curl up his nose and close his eyes while he chewed and swallowed it.
He also had a big wad of hay draped over his head like a blonde wig, which added to the effect.
I am still kicking myself for not having my camera! Dang it.

The SMELL of banana gets to them. I think if you spritzed banana scent onto newspaper you could get cattle to eat it.
This guy has never been handled much and is not too thrilled about his small quarters,
but he came right up to the fence and ate out of my hand when he caught wind of that yummy stuff.
He will likely be expecting more of it tomorrow.

[countryfied2011]

Thanks everyone for all the replies, I tried bread yesterday and they just turned their noses up at it. I think they were looking for more timothy/alfalfa pellets.

I have a horse that will eat almost anything, but the rest are pretty picky. I have 3 rabbits that will eat carrots and one that wont touch them.

[G. Seddon]

I use Purina Breeder Supreme 20N Cubes...50# bag...all it takes is one little treat and they are hooked. Great training tool too. Will have to try bread one of these days.

[L&Jfarms]

My family owns a pizza place and with the dough scraps and the left overs people dont eat we give to them (scrap off toppings) THEY GO NUTS OVER THE STUFF!!!! 80 cows can be moved from one pasture to another with just one cardboard box of the stuff.