Bottle raising question...

[camels]

My camel was born on January 2nd.

I'm bottle raising him and I order his milk from a local feed store. Well they told me there shipment was in and all ready to be picked up when I was out of my bag.

I went in there yesterday morning, and he didn't have any and had to order it. He's overnighting it though, and my baby will get it tonight.

But now he's been over 24 hours without his milk. The thing is, he does't really seem to care. He's eating his pellets and his bermuda hay.

I know he's not hungry, but is he missing out on things in the milk?

At his age, isn't it much too young for him to be weaned?

[Cameleer]

Some people wean baby horses and camels at about 3 months of age. With the right supplements it can be done but it’s not something I would do. Waiting until 4 or 5 months old would be a better time to do it. Gobi was a year old before I stopped giving him milk. He was drinking it out of a bucket by then and I was only giving it to him once a day so that I could add some extra supplements to it.
I also gave him buckets of warm water, he loved it!

[camels]

How many times should I be giving him the milk a day now? He's three and a half months.

[Donna]

At three and a half months I would give your baby milk twice a day. I would continue to feed him this untill 6 months old then one bottle a day untill he is a year old. Some people wean a lot earlier, but this is the way it would occur if they were in the wild. You know what they say: "Don't fool with mother nature!":notworthy

[camels]

Thank you. Twice a day it is then.

[lanzarote]

hi friends: I have a question for you: wich kind of milk do you give to yours camels babys, thank you very much.

[camels]

I used lama milk replacement, another alternative would be Land-O-Lakes. Don't use anything made for baby cows, its toxic.

[lanzarote]

thank you for your answer, I,m learning a lot reading the post of all forums, sorry if some times I make some strange or innocent questions.

[camels]

Its okay. I had no idea either. This is what my baby's breeder told me before sending him home.

[Donna]

Why do you think calf milk replacers are toxic? I have been successfully using it for over 12 years without a bit of trouble. I have had 39 babies grow up to be strong, large, happy adults. Most everyone I know uses it also.

[camels]

I was told by my camel's breeder not to use it. That it contained certain things that were not easily digested by camel calves and were treated like a toxicity by their bodies. Same goes for cattle grains and other cattle products. I also know someone locally who's baby camel died on cattle calf milk after having disgestive problems.

[Donna]

I agree about a lot of cattle feed with all the additives. We just stick to an All stock feed which is safe for all type of livestock. I wonder what the particulars were on the baby camel that died. Very unusual, but I would have to see proof the milk was to blame before I went and declared calf milk was the cause. "Digestive problems" is just a bit too broad. It would be very informative if you could get your camel's breeder to let you have a copy of their necropsy report, and then you could share this all with us.

[camels]

The camel that died locally didn't have anything to do with my baby's breeder.

[Donna]

That's good. Do you know if the baby who died even had a necropsy done?

[camels]

No, I don't know much about it.

I just know that my baby's breeder said to only use Lama, or Land-o-Lakes, and I went through a great deal of trouble to order those specific brands.

[Donna]

Land-O-Lakes? What formula? The calf? I've used that as well.

[camels]

No not the calf milk, the lamb's milk, she believed cow's milk was not good for Camels.

[Donna]

Well all I can say is what I said before. And everyone is entitled to their own opinion, I just wanted to let it be known that calf milk replacer is NOT toxic to camels.

[Cameleer]

I used and recommend Land O Lakes lamb milk replacer, there’s also a place in Canada that makes Camel Milk Replacer.
The problems with some types of milk replacers are they will clump up in the camel’s stomach and this has been known to kill the baby.

[Donna]

Yep, they have to be mixed YERY well.

[Cameleer]

Just a reminder,
Never feed grains which are specifically formulated for cattle or chickens to camels. These may contain ionophores (coccidiostats and growth promotants such as monensin, rumensin or salinomycin) which are poisonous to camels. Use horse feed instead.

[camels]

A lot of cattle milks contain ionophores as well.

[Donna]

Would you mind saying which ones?? To be honest, I can't find any that do. I sure would like to know the ones you are talking about though.

[Kameldame]

Hi all, I read your discussion about the feeding...very interesting...

In India where they have apparently thousands of camles, they do feed them cows milk without any problems. The cow milk has some similarities with camel milk, some vitamins are may off and the fat in the camel milk is a little bit lower, but in general I do not think that this should cause any problems.

You can feed cattle grain. Off course you should not get the one which has ionophores in it. Rumensin (brandname and monensin is the Ionophore) is a growth promoter and anti-coccida drug which is mixed in some of the food. Usually the feedmill mixes it up for the farmer. Regular grain should not have any in it. If you are not sure about it, check the label or ask the company who prodces it.
If you want to feed your camel some grain you could use formulated food for llamas. Their digestive tract is so similar to the camel and the food is formulated for camelids. I personally dont think horse grain is a good idea, but I know a lot of people who had never problems giving it).
I have seen malnurished camels which were on horse feed and not very good roughage. This animals developed secondary hyperparathyroidism which made their bones weak and one of them had to be put down in the end because it got severe joint problems.
The calcium:Phosphorous ratio in horse feedis different from what it should be for camelids. If you want to feed horse feed and you have still other recources (such as good quality of hay, etc) then I think it will be fine, but if that is the only source it can potentially lead to problems.
I hope that helped a little bit.