Yesterday, I made the mistake of over analyzing in a very minor way.
When feeding 7-toes an afternoon snack of an alfalfa flake and a few cubes I analyzed where in his pen I thought would be the most desirable place to enjoy a snack. It had rained the night before, and I thought the afternoon was a little hot and humid. One corner of the pen was getting a little shade from a tree on the other side of the fence and had a nice breeze.
I decided that the shady corner was the best spot to put 7-toes snack in. After putting the feed in that corner, I noticed that 7-toes was not walking over to it. The corner that I thought was desirable, he thought was scary. Eventually, (several hours later when the sun had shifted so that the corner was no longer shaded) he did decide to eat the snack.
So, today I did not analyze. I dumped his cubes over the fence where it was very convenient for me. He started eating them almost immediately.
Story of 7-toes: 7-toes was a feeder steer that came off wheat pasture limping badly due to a very swollen foot. We hauled his pasture mates to the sale barn, and we hauled him to the vet. The vet told us that one of his toes was badly infected and recommended amputating it. He is now recovering in our “sick pen” and has earned the nickname 7-toes.
Picture is from about 2 weeks ago. When we first got him back from the vet, he would hide from us in his loafing shed. Once we walked away from his pen, he would come out of the shed and eat his cubes.
