[SallyintNorth]

Sally, I was once telling a fellow goalkeeper (she'd had goats about 50yrs) about the Esophageal groove, she really didnt know what i was talking about, said i was crackers or imagining things. I suggested she looked it up. It's a very useful thing to know.

But I didn't know you had to lower the angle of the bottle, I'm still happy to learn things 

The angle of the head and bottle is important for two reasons, as I understand it.  Firstly, if the lamb (or kid or calf) has the reflex but only partially, putting its head in the suckling orientation can help to trigger the reflex.  As babies, they are usually feeding stood up with the teat just above their nose, hence the positioning I described.  Older animals are too big to suckle their mums like that, so progress to the 'kneeling down head up' position - but the groove reflex is well-established by then, and will kick in fully as they move in towards the ewe, so the angles no longer matter.  And the second reason is to moderate the flow and help keep the milk in the groove even if the reflex is absent or only partial.  A bottle and a lamb's head nearly vertical are much more likely to result in milk cascading down the throat and escaping the unclosed groove.

 

[twizzel]

Yes I know, but there’s no point telling the OP it needs doing at 3-4 weeks if there isn’t a challenge. Mine don’t go out until 8-12 weeks, but it’s only when they go out that they get cocci. Likewise others have cocci inside the shed.