The objetive of this study was to evaluate the effect of increasing the concentration of total solids in whole milk on growth and starter intake in Holstein calves. Sixty female calves were fed 4 L of colostrum at birth, blocked by dam parity (primiparous and multiparous) and randomly assigned to 1 of 4 treatments (n = 15) in a 2 × 2 factorial design. All calves were fed whole heat-treated milk under either a conventional (C, 4 L from d 1 to 49) or a step-up/step-down system (S, 4 L from d 1 to 7, 6 L from d 8 to 14, 8 L from d 15 to 28, 6 L from d 29 to 35, 4 L from d 36 to 49), divided into 2 equal feedings daily. Both systems were also tested with 0.5 kg/d of milk replacer powder (MR) during the first 30 d or without it. Treatments were C, C+MR, S, and S+MR. Starter and water were offered daily ad libitum from d 1. All calves were fed 2 L from d 50 to 56. Calves were weighted at birth and weekly until 53–59 d of age. Starter intake was calculated based on offered and remaining feed. The ANOVA procedure was used to determine the effect of treatment on BW, ADG and starter intake, and statistical differences were considered with a P-value <0.05. No statistical differences in BW were detected at birth (37.3 ± 4.7 kg). MR supplementation increased by 8 kg the final BW of calves in S treatment but no differences between C+MR and S+MR were detected. MR supplementation increased ADG by 0.11 and 0.12 kg/d, in C and S treatments, respectively. Starter intake during the last week (d 50–56) was similar between treatments. In conclusion, total solid increment using MR during the first month showed a greater ADG during the entire liquid feeding period with no negative effect on starter intake. The use of C+MR is a simple method to obtain higher weight gains without the need to increase the volume of milk offered.