Bottle babies

I had posted from back in March that we had had the opportunity to help feed the bottle baby (https://journeyinamazinggrace.blogspot.com/2020/03/monday-on-farm.html) and then I posted a couple of weeks ago about the new calf being born and the first feedings for her (https://journeyinamazinggrace.blogspot.com/2020/05/on-her-own.html).

I thought you might find it interesting to see some more about this... filling the bottles.

Each of the calves gets 3 quarts (1.5 bottles). Initially the baby was only getting one, but after about a week, Regina increased her to 1.5 and she has tolerated it well.

The "baby" (we are kind of calling her "Mocha") getting her bottle.

The older calf, whom we call "Duracell" (because she is so copper!), had already had her bottle, so she went over to mom, Mandy...

She does not nurse from mom, but she will suck on Mandy's tag or the end of her collar, and Mandy will wash Duracell too.

Even though Mandy hasn't "mothered" in the sense of feeding her calf, she "mothers" her in many other ways.

Morning Glory also "mothers" Mocha as much as she can - again, she isn't nursing Mocha, but she will give a low, almost humming "moo" to her, and when/if Mocha comes over to the fence, she'll wash her as much as Mocha will allow. At the point when we took this picture, Mocha was busy begging for more milk from us (since we were still there, albeit taking pictures), so she couldn't be bothered to go over to her momma!

These pictures were from a few days ago... Mocha hasn't been feeling 100% the past couple of days... Regina thinks that she may have eaten one of the weeds that grow around her enclosure and that it upset her stomach, or possibly that some of her milk went into her rumen instead of directly into her stomach. She hasn't been as demanding about eating -- Regina has given her some enzymes to try to settle her tummy and help her get past this. She has been still up and around, but not at quite the high energy level that she had a few days ago. This morning (Monday) she was again quite demanding for her bottle... so I'm hoping and praying that she is on the mend.