Dumor ultra milk replacer mixing questions

[redtailgal]

Dont take away a bottle at this stage.

They are eating grass and grain, but their rumens are just starting to develop. Their bodies arent able to use the sold food to get maximum nutrition out of it yet. RIght now, it's mostly just going thru their system.

At around 6-8 weeks, take away a bottle. Then a week or so later, take away another bottle.

 

[TheyCallMeShorty]

How much grain should they get when you take the first bottle away? Right now the are eating about 1 pound of grain a day. I will definatly wait until the right age. Thanks for your experienced knowledge.

 

[redtailgal]

I'd keep them at a pound for right now, but in a couple weeks, start boosting it up a little at a time.

It depends alot on the pasture situation. Our dam raised calves dont get grain at all, but I do supplement bottle babies usually. If the pasture has put on really nice, and they are grazing well, I'll have them at around 2 pounds of grain when I wean them from the bottle, then once they have adjusted to no bottle, I wean them off the grain as well. If the pasture is less than great I'll have them on as much a four pounds and leave them on the grain a little longer.

My goal is to feed them as little grain as possible while keeping them at their optimum weight. Grain is costly, grass is free, lol.

 

[goodhors]

So taking away one of the bottles isn't a good idea?

No, it is NOT a good idea. Calf is hungry, but his stomach and digestive system are not developed enough
to eat grass or pellets yet. Even if he ate things, they won't get digested to provide food to calf.
Might cause a blockage in his system. So all you get with removing the one bottle is a weak calf, more
likely to get sick and slow their growth. Saving money on milk replacer is NOT worth losing the calf.

Our Vet said 3 bottles a day, which we did 8 hours apart. Calves did very well on that, and were
eating hay, grass, pellets in quantity to fill their stomachs, before we weaned them off the
bottles. Each was DIFFERENT in how they learned to eat!! Ours had the pellets in stalls to nibble
starting at about 5 weeks. Didn't really do much nibbling until almost the full two months old, pellets
given in limited quantity, couple cups each serving time. You can tell they are eating, by alfalfa pellets being gone, poop
color changes if grazing or eating pellets. I wanted them getting a good stomach flora built which takes
some time to create, for better digestion, without losing any weight from bottle feeding gains.