Calf starter is necessary for the proper development of the rumen in young calves. Calves are born as pre-ruminants. In the beginning of their lives, they will depend on milk to meet their nutrient demands. Calf starter is the next step in preparing the calf for consumption of solid feed. The physical form of calf starter and the nutrition provided in the calf starter both have an impact on the development of a calf. The objective of this experiment was to increase the palatability of calf starter through a flavor additive such as vanilla, and evaluate whether there would be a concurrent increase in consumption of calf starter. From the University of Wisconsin-River Falls, 9 calves were utilized on the dairy operation. Calf starter intake was measured for 5 d in all calves, then the treatment was changed to add vanilla to the calf starter and measure intake for 5 d. This repeated from d 20–45 of life, making each calf its own control. The treatments were vanilla added or no vanilla added and alternated every 5 d. Vanilla was added to the calf starter at 5% of calf starter weight. Data was analyzed using the Mixed procedure of SAS (2014) using calf as a random measure and day as repeated measure. Over the entire trial period, calf starter intake least squares means for vanilla were 250.18g and 202.60g without vanilla (SEM = 47.98, 52.42; P = 0.25). Least squares means of calf starter intake for day one through 5 for vanilla treatment were 240.72, 233.43, 211.54, 226.82, 396.12, respectively. Least squares means of calf starter intake for d 1 through 5 for no vanilla treatment were 265.09, 202.94, 228.33, 169.04, 162.53, respectively. The addition of vanilla extract to calf starter did not significantly affect starter intake. However, a numerical increase was seen in starter intake that contained vanilla flavoring. More research is needed with an increased number of calves.