Why do cows refuse to let newborn calves nurse?

Answer 1

He/she may have had a difficult birth and could be weak and cold, warm her up, rub her down with towels, call your vet to see if you need to give her a glucose shot.

You may also have a "Dummy " or Silly" calf. They are not born with a strong suck response. I am currently tube feeding one now. Still offering the bottle, in hopes that she will make my life easier, but she still won't even suck on my finger,or the nipple at all. good luck

Answer 2

She shouldn't. Older cows who've had experience calving should not do this; if they do it would be a very rare incident indeed. However, if the "mother cow" is a first-calf heifer, this is more common. First-calf heifers are "cows" that have had no prior experience with calves, so they may think that the thing that came out of their back end doesn't belong to them, hence the behaviour. What you need to do is to put the heifer and her calf in a small enclosure (best may be a 10' x 10' pen, or any pen that has an area of 100 ft2) and keep them in there for at least 24 hours. If the heifer still hasn't bonded with the calf yet, or the calf is still hungry (best way to tell if he's been suckling is by the teats; they'll look wet if they've been sucked on), put the heifer in a head gate and get the calf to nurse as much as you can. You may end up having to bottle-feed the calf yourself every couple hours if all else fails.

Answer 3

This shouldn't happen. Most cows are experienced enough to not refuse their newborn calves from nursing. Most of the time it's the first-calf heifers you have problems with, and it's primarily because they have no experience with calves or calving or anything like that. Even heifers that have poor mothering ability will be ones that are bound to not let their newborn calves suckle from them.

Answer 4

Heifers can be dumb, considering that they have never had a calf before, have no experience with newborn calves, and can't quite figure out what to do with this thing that they had such a hard time pushing out their rears! A lot of heifers are pretty quick at figuring out what to do once they've given birth to a calf, but others are not so smart. They need encouragement, a boost in their mothering instincts to get them to figure out that that newborn calf is theirs and needs their mothering. Some breeds or bloodlines have weaker mothering instincts than others, and thus require a bit more work.

But heifers are just a pain in the rear nonetheless. If the calves are healthy and strong, you can just let the calves do the work to get the point across that that heifer is their mother and needs their milk, if the calf is stubborn enough. But, if not, then you can either get a dog in with the calf to encourage the heifer to realize that those calves need her and her protection, or tie up the heifer or put her in a chute and get the calf to nurse from her there. There are many other tips and tricks you can try, so whatever suits may work for you.

Answer 5

The old cow may have coke-bottle teats making it impossible for the calf to latch on to, or she isn't producing any milk. Calf may be low in vigor too, but the problems could be more to do with the cow than the calf.