Help new fawn wont eat!

New to this and this is our first fawn. She has went 24 hours now and still wont take bottle, Every tome i force feed her she takes 2 or 3 dropperfuls and falls to sleep. We are feeding Fox Valley,I have even went so far as to make a speedy trip to wally worlds about 5 am for different nipples we started off with prichard nipples i think there called from tractor supply.she has had 2 bowels and acts lively and will follow me around house.What should i do?

Give her sometime. If she has bonded with you, she will eat when she is hungry. I too have one that I pulled yesterday morning and she still won't take much. But she will come around. They always do.

Just keep trying she will come around. Don't panic some take little longer than others after two days then maybe think about putting back on mother to keep her from getting to weak.

In my opinion, the "force feeding" could be your problem. Just leave her alone for a while and then see if she will take the bottle. Fighting with her isn't accomplishing anything.



Some tricks to getting her to take the bottle.



1 try stimulating her to urinate while she has the bottle in her mouth. Some fawns need this to cause a sucking reaction. Just take a warm damp cloth and gently wipe her butt. Don't rub harshly, that can cause a raw area.



2. Try covering her eyes with a rag or washcloth. Sometime not seeing lets them suck better.



3. Try cupping your hand around the bottom of the fawns mouth and muzzle while you put the bottle in her mouth, this can simulate the mothers groin area and can creat a sucking reflex.



4. If you have long hair, put the bottle up around your neck area and try to get the fawn to go under your hair and find the bottle.



5. Try putting a dab of kero syrup on your finger or the nipple to see if she starts sucking. Don't give too much kero because that can cause the runs.



try any of these tricks alone or with each other to see if she starts sucking on her own.

Thank you all for good advice.

I agree with wvdeerman on the methods to get them to take a bottle, but sometimes you have to force feed them to keep them alive long enough to bond with you. You might try putting the nipple in their mouth and squeezing the bottle to get a mouthful of milk in their mouth and then rub their throat to get them to swallow. If I have to force feed them I like to use Pedialite to keep them hydrated but I think that they still get hungry. When I have to force feed them I use a urinary catheter on a 60cc catheter tip syringe and give them the whole 60cc or 2 oz. I put the tube all the way in to the stomach and then slowly push the plunger down. To make sure that the tube is in the stomach and not the lungs you can blow, very slightly, on it and have some one listen and you should hear it gurgle. They should be on the bottle in one or two days after they get hungry enough. I usually have two interns helping me bottle feed every year and when we get one that won't take a bottle the first thing I try is to have the other one try to feed the fawn. Sometimes the fawn will take a bottle from one of us but for the other two it won't. I guess that everyone handles the fawn a little different and sometimes the fawn will respond to one person better than others.



Feel free to call or pm me if you have any more questions.



Russ

936-661-0128

Thank you Russ, She is eating like a champ now.

Sometimes you just have to wait until they holler....I usually wait at least 16 hours before I even touch them. I just let them lay. If they holler...they are hungry and normally won't care who is feeding them by them. Of course, there are always exceptions!