The Blackfoot optimist. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1907-1918, 1913-06-12
REARING MOThERLESS COLTS

1t frequently happens that farmers
are obliged to raise colts by hand eth
er because of the death of the mo-
Their or of her inability to supply suf-
ficient milk to properly nourish the
colt. This may be done easily enough
but 1t requires great care and patience
and the knowledge of few funda-
mental facts regarding the proper sub
stitution of cows milk to feed tt
colt on. Cows milk has less sugar
and more fat in it than mares milk.
Most mares milk Most mares milk
will not show quite per cent of fat,
while most cows milk shows just
about l per cent more fat than this.
The difference is therefore not SO
great and can readily be corrected,
according to a writer in the Wis. .Ag-
ric., by the addition Of sugar and wa
ter as follows:
Take the milk of as recently fresh
a COW as you have in the herd, CIV
ing preference to one whose milk is
not rich in butter fat. Then take a
dessert spoonful of the best white
granulated sugar and to it add enough
warm water to dissolve it, after which
add three tablespOOnfulS of limewater
and enough of the new milk to make
a pint. You then have the milk ready
for the colt and can let the colt suck
it from a bottle fitted with rubber
nipple. Use a bottle with a large open
ing so that large nipple more nearly
like the mares teats can be used The
milk should be fed at body tempera-
ture or slightly higher, never cold, to
very young colts.
Very young colts should also be fed
frequently and never much at time.
Let it have half teacupful every no, !
at first and later as it grows older
day by day the quantity of milk may
be increased and the number of feeds
decreased until according to it's we'll
doing it may be fed only six times a
day and then four times. If the colt
does nicely it may at the end of three
weeks receive the milk and limewater
alone from bucket, the sugar being
left out. Never allow the colt all the
milk it will drink at this age, however
as it will surely cause trouble. Keep
it's appetite keen.
Always watch hand raised colts
closely for securing. Securing is a sign
of deranged digestive system and
means should be adapted at once to
stop it. Cut down on the amount OF
milk as soon as symptoms appear for
for very young colts and three or four
ounces for older ones. The lime water
in the milk has a tendency to correct
scours and should never be left out
If very young colts scour it is advis-
able to discontinue giving milk for a
few feeds, giving only sugar and lime
water, as well as to give the castor
OIL
When the colt has reached the age
of month or six weeks it should be
induced to eat little grain. At first
it should have only oat meal and two
or three weeks later it may also have
little bran. At two months to ten
weeks Of age the colt may also have
some sweet skim milk substituted for
a part Of the new milk. Only very
small amount of the skim milk should
be made SO that in about four weeks
time, or when the colt is II to IA
weeks old, the change is completed
and the colt receiving about all the
sweet skim milk it wants three times
daily. Continue to feed the colt grain
all along and also give it small
grass lot close to the farmstead in
which it may Craze and exercise
Western Farm Review.