See prior blog post for background information: calf number 5 abandoned by his mother and now named Amaretto by the kids.  I am feeding him 4 times a day calf milk replacer.  A very good blog post of using milk replacer can be found at: http://bottlecalf.blogspot.com/2012/05/bottle-feeding-calves-milk-replacer.html.  In summary, calves receiving milk replacer always get 1 gallon per day.  Some say give 1/2 gallon, 2 times a day, 12 hours apart.  Others I have talked to say Longhorns should be given 1 quart, 4 times a day.  At around 2 weeks, a starter feed should be added in.  Over time the calf continues to consume 1 gallon per day of milk replacer and more and more of the starter feed.  I don't think Amaretto has scours but his stool is very loose.  Scours is a form of diarrhea that occurs in baby calves.  I am not sure of the normal appearance of baby calf manure.  He sleeps a lot but don't all babies?  I have been putting small amounts of corn feed in his mouth, at least some seems to be getting swallowed.  The adventure continues.

Calf number 5 was born this spring on June 3rd.  A good year so far but the mother was no where to be found.  I did not worry because he appeared to be licked off and the mom's will often leave the calves for awhile and then come back to them. This did not happen.  I was fairly certain I knew which cow the calf belonged to.  I checked all of the cows and only one had her udder full.  All of the other cows with milk in their udders belonged to calves one through four.  A friend suggested Vick's Vapor Rub: applying a small amount to the nose of the mother and a small amount to the head of the new calf.  The mother definitely showed more interest in him with the Vick's applied, but by the next morning she was butting him with her horns and kicking him away when he tried to milk.  I gave him DuMOR Blue Ribbon Calf Colostrum, 2 doses, 8 hours apart his first night.  Now he is home with us and we are feeding him every 6 to 8 hours.  I had switched bulls on the heard over a period of 2 weeks.  Maybe this disruption somehow caused the mother to abandon her calf.  We are going to try to train him to lead using a halter.  Maybe even try to ride him some day.