Bear in mind you are making a drastic switch from mom to milk replacer. Totally different taste. Some calves take to it right away, others don't. If they don't you may have to use your legs as stantions. Stand the calf up and straddle it. Then you have the head at your crotch. Try sticking a couple of fingers in its mouth first to see if you can get a suck action going. If so, quickly replace the fingers with the nipple. If the calf refuses the milk replacer, wait a couple of hours and try again. Hunger can work wonders.
I had my calf taking the bottle readily so put him back with mom today. This evening he refused to take the bottle so I had to tube feed him. I hope he will take the bottle again in the morning. No more mom for quite a while. She appears to give just enough milk to take the edge off his hunger to where he doesn't want to tank up from the bottle.
Ken S. in WC TN
I had my calf taking the bottle readily so put him back with mom today. This evening he refused to take the bottle so I had to tube feed him. I hope he will take the bottle again in the morning. No more mom for quite a while. She appears to give just enough milk to take the edge off his hunger to where he doesn't want to tank up from the bottle.
Ken S. in WC TN