Weaning Puppies

[»Tina«]

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Hi All,

I've been reading up about weaning pup's on the net but loads tell me different things, as Chance's pup's are 3 weeks old tomorrow, I'll be starting them off, as this is the one thing on these site's that's the same, (is this right?)

I have pedigree puppy food and warm goat's milk for thier first experiance, is this ok? (mashed up to a soup), what do I do with mum?

some sites say remove her for a hour before feeding the pup's other state wean them while mum is there, also some state reduce mum's food at this time others say not to, also how many times a day to do this? again confusing info on most sites :wacko: mum however is really happy to continue feeding them :wub:

the FAQ have been a god send (seasons, mating, pregnancy, etc) but I can't find anything about weaning, so tip's and advise about this would be very welcome, for this first timer!

I have to say though, this is one of the best experiances of my life, it's been fantastic, but hard work, I wish it wasn't going so fast though!

all my visitors get bombarded with my puppy photo album, from 1 hour old to presant day (how sad am I (w00t) ) funny they don't drop in so often now :- "

 

[Juley]

I started to wean mine at 3 1/2 weeks. Mum was leaving them for a bit by then so before she went i to fed them I soaked puppy kibble in puppy milk and made it quite runny. I put them one at a time on my lap ( on a think towel (w00t) ) and let them have a lap. Had to put a bit on their mouth first. They wern't that interested the first few times but by about 4 weeks were tucking in well on their own. I let mum in to finish the last bits and clean them up. If mum has plenty of milk they might not be that interested yet. Any pix?

 

[»Tina«]

Thanks Juley, as there's 11 of them, I thought I'd start tomorrow to give mum a bit of help, there are 4 which are a bit thinner than the rest, but in no way to skinny to cause real concern, there are loads of pix here: Chance's pups will be putting some 3 week old ones up tomorow too on the same thread :thumbsup:

 

[Juley]

WOW, how did I miss that thread. Beautiful. :wub: :wub:

 

[*Lesley*]

I haven't got a clue about weaning, but I hope it all goes well :wub: :wub: :wub: Looking forward to new pics

 

[Seraphina]

3 weeks is little bit young, the longer the mum feed them the better. Bitches start to feed their pups in about 2 hours intervals and then slowly extend the times between feeds. I generally start at about 4 weeks, but that depends on the mother, if she is not loosing condition and has plenty of milk, I prefer to pump the extra food into her and let her produce the ideal puppy food herself. If I have one or 2 pups that are not fat enough I give them one or two extra feeds in between meals on the bitch. I find that the little one catches up very quickly, matter of days. My bitches generally start bringing food to the pups at about 4 weeks. So when i see her with 5 chicken necks heading for the puppy pen I start making up puppy food. The first thing I give them is rice based baby cereal with goat’s milk. Make it very runny, just use the cereal to thicken it little bit. If they tolerate it well I progress to quick oats porridge with goats milk (make it in microwave) and after a week or so I start giving them large chunks (too big to swallow) of raw meat to cut their teeth on. They scrape bits of to eat. I introduce puppy kibble only at about 6 weeks.

 

[»Tina«]

Thanks for the advise, as mentioned before, Chance is still more than happy to let them feed off her, I will pop to the shop and get some baby rice to mix in with the goat's milk, and give the 4 little ones a go later, to help them along a bit, should be fun

they are all starting to play fight with each other now and come wobbling up to me when I call them, and are really confident little babies :wub: pix's to come later :thumbsup:

 

[Seraphina]

Thanks for the advise, as mentioned before, Chance is still more than happy to let them feed off her, I will pop to the shop and get some baby rice to mix in with the goat's milk, and give the 4 little ones a go later, to help them along a bit, should be fun 
they are all starting to play fight with each other now and come wobbling up to me when I call them, and are really confident little babies  :wub: pix's to come later  :thumbsup:

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I just warm the milk in microwave and sprinkle little bit of the cereal (tespoon). let stand for a little while to soften it and then take the pups one by one and dip their nose in it. They usually just lick it of their faces and then run away, or have a little bit of swim in it. At that point I let the bitch in and let her deal with the mess . She cleans the pups and eats the food, seeing her eating some of the pups may try to lap as well. weather permitting I do this on the lawn. I start just once a day. After few days of them actually eating some, I feed them twice a day. Gradually work up to the 4-5 times a day routine. As the bitch feeds them less and less I reduce her food intake, but I always let her finish what the pups left. Giving them more than they can eat I make sure that they all got as much as they want. At this stage the bitch lets them only suckle enough to relive pressure and avoid problems with her teats. I just let the girls to do things the way they want, they do know best. I set them up such a way that they can go to the pups or they can escape from the pups if they want to. I am lucky none of my bitches so far lost any condition having a litter.

As far as the little ones go; next time the bitch goes to feed the litter I would take the biggest ones and put them in a box for few moments and make sure the little ones got a good feed first then let the big ones in too. Do that twice a day and they should pick up fast. :thumbsup:

 

[»Tina«]

some great advise there Thank you Seraphina, I had them all in my living room (on an old blanket) for a photo shoot lastnight, and thought I'd try them with a little baby rice and warm goat's milk, it was like a feeding frenzie!! (w00t) not one of them didn't have a go, we were all caked in it but it was great fun!

it took longer to clean up than it did for the food to go! there was none left for mum lol, they were even licking it off each other!

I have been letting the little ones feed off mum first though for a couple of day's but they just don't seem to be as fat as some of the others, but even the fatty ones were lapping up the food latnight, didn't even have to help them, they just dived right in :lol:

they ALL had a good swim in it though, and it even looked like my kids had been swimming in it too (w00t) great fun!

 

[zilloot]

:wub: :wub: :wub: Ohhhh don't you love a sleepy baby puppy with a full round tummy just after it's being swimming in a milky meal .... just bliss :wub: :wub:

I've just looked at the other thread and your 11 babies (w00t) (w00t) What a beautiful mum and babies - you must have your hands full now!!!

Lucky you. Don't have anything to add, just wanted to say :luck: :luck: and enjoy all the mess Don't they grow up so quickly (w00t) :huggles:

 

[»Tina«]

Thanks Fiona :thumbsup: yeah don't I know they grow up too fast, I want it to really drag and drag, I don't want them to go ,

I know I'm going to be crying when they do go to thier new homes though, I'm just cherishing every single second! and taking tons of pix too

 

[huskymam]

they are beautiful tina.

 

[»Tina«]

they are beautiful tina.   

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Thank you Huskymam, looking forward to pix of your new litter, good luck with it all :luck: :thumbsup:

the main thing is to stay calm, then your bitch will be calm, if your flapping she will think something is wrong and panic too, you'll be fine though

 

[huskymam]

thanx tina, i'll keep you informed!

 

[sighthoundlover]

Beautiful pups.

 

[Seraphina]

some great advise there Thank you Seraphina, I had them all in my living room (on an old blanket) for a photo shoot lastnight, and thought I'd try them with a little baby rice and warm goat's milk, it was like a feeding frenzie!!  (w00t) not one of them didn't have a go, we were all caked in it but it was great fun!

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Obviously they are very ready to be weaned . You just have to make up more of it next time. Gradually make it thicker. And watch their poo to make sure they are handling it OK. I usually go through 2-3 boxes of the baby cereal and then introduce other food stuffs, but always gradually, one new thing at a time and watch for any signs of tummy upset. :thumbsup:

 

[»Tina«]

some great advise there Thank you Seraphina, I had them all in my living room (on an old blanket) for a photo shoot lastnight, and thought I'd try them with a little baby rice and warm goat's milk, it was like a feeding frenzie!!  (w00t) not one of them didn't have a go, we were all caked in it but it was great fun!

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Obviously they are very ready to be weaned . You just have to make up more of it next time. Gradually make it thicker. And watch their poo to make sure they are handling it OK. I usually go through 2-3 boxes of the baby cereal and then introduce other food stuffs, but always gradually, one new thing at a time and watch for any signs of tummy upset. :thumbsup:

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Thanks again your a star! will do as advised :thumbsup: