Eagle River Ontario Canada | We purchased two young holstein bull calves around the beginning of February this year and all was going quite well until this past weekend when we went to put the castration bands on them. When we were putting the bands on i noticed that both of the calves penal area was blistered and scabbed and looked quite uncomfortable. I noticed that both calves had been sucking on each other roughly 3 weeks prior but never really thought anything of it, just thought it was natural instinct from being pulled from their mothers at such an early age.
So after this I did some research and found that this behaviour can be quite common in dairy calves. Most of what I found in my research said that bottle feeding can help deture this behaviour, but unfortunately these calves are currently drinking their milk replacer from buckets. I also found that distractions like free choice hay and dummy nipples can help keep the cross sucking from happening until the urge for the calf to suck has passed.
We currently are giving them a small ration of dairy ration after they are finished drinking their milk and they always have free choice hay and water. I have also gone to the extent to put the dry dummy nipples on the wall.
I was hoping that if anyone has any insight on how to deal with this problem they would be willing to share. I have noticed that in the past few days the cross sucking has slowed but not completely stopped. I am really trying to avoid having any infections start with these boys, other than the sucking they are very healthy and are getting good weight gain.
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Cross-Sucking with Holstein bull calves
