So a couple of weeks ago one of our older cows had a baby. Unfortunately, there seem to have been complications from the birth. She was acting sickly since the birth and died a week after it. That left us with an orphan. Unfortunately, cows don't tend to adopt as much as something like goats or sheep do. He tried feeding from a mom with another baby the same age and she just kept pushing him away. My step-dad and I managed to herd him into the corral.
Here's a picture of him in the corral, terrified and desperate to escape and get with the herd:
We then put him in the chicken coup. It's really hard to escape from (he bent the gate on the corral and escaped from it) and it's secure from predators at night. If he had been orphaned at birth it would have been easier, but after a week he was already used to feeding from his mom and being with the rest of the herd.
For the first few days I had to rope him down and then sit on him in order to feed him--he would just run away otherwise. The very first feeding, I had to force the bottle into his mouth, squirt the formula down his throat, and massage his throat to get him to swallow. By the end of the first feeding he realized it was good stuff and he was starving, but he still ran from humans.
Saturday he finally stopped running and fighting (which is good because he's already insanely strong). Now he licks his lips whenever he sees me. This morning I decided he might be comfortable enough to not mind a camera in his face and I was right.
You has breakfast?
NOMNOM!
I think I got formula on the lens during the video. Hard to do video with one hand. :
:
YouTube - bottlefeeding
Here's a picture of him in the corral, terrified and desperate to escape and get with the herd:
We then put him in the chicken coup. It's really hard to escape from (he bent the gate on the corral and escaped from it) and it's secure from predators at night. If he had been orphaned at birth it would have been easier, but after a week he was already used to feeding from his mom and being with the rest of the herd.
For the first few days I had to rope him down and then sit on him in order to feed him--he would just run away otherwise. The very first feeding, I had to force the bottle into his mouth, squirt the formula down his throat, and massage his throat to get him to swallow. By the end of the first feeding he realized it was good stuff and he was starving, but he still ran from humans.
Saturday he finally stopped running and fighting (which is good because he's already insanely strong). Now he licks his lips whenever he sees me. This morning I decided he might be comfortable enough to not mind a camera in his face and I was right.
You has breakfast?
NOMNOM!
I think I got formula on the lens during the video. Hard to do video with one hand. :
:YouTube - bottlefeeding
