weaning formulas?

[Lorrie]

Our "A" litter (mom and pups came into rescue when they were 1 day old) is now 24 days old - they are becoming quite mobile and one has already bailed over the welping box wall (much to her loudly voiced dismay) they also have teeth starting ... ouch Moma dog is not too impressed.

About what age should we introduce supplement food and does anyone have a good formula or recipe?


Thanks
Lorrie
Adopt-a-Rott

[delila]

Hi Lorrie :)

I would love to hear what breeders have to say about this - as they are MUCH more educated then I.

However, I have raised 3 litters in my lifetime - one of which was hand reared.

I normally start the weaning thing around 3 weeks old. I start by putting some milk replacer in a shallow dish - and allowing the puppies to try and drink it. They will get way more on them then in them - BUT it's a learning experiance.

I make homemade milk replacer. I don't have the recipe on me - but I know it includes evaporated milk (2 cans?), plain full-fat yogurt, egg yolks, and liquid baby vitamens.

Once they take an interest in the lapping of liquid - I will slowly add normal human baby rice to make the liquid more of a gruel. I also add meat baby food (plain lamb, plain chicken, plain beef) to the gruel - it;s always a big hit.

Once they are really getting the hang - I will replace the baby rice with puppy food that has been soaked and mashed. I use whatever puppy food the mother is on.

Thats what I do, but I would wait for a more educated guess :)

Good luck :)

[TrinityRun]

I wean puppies straight on to adult formula food. I add water to the kibble, put it in the blender and make it the consistency of cake batter. Occassionally I give them cottage cheese and yogurt.

Nothing fancy here.

[Carol Burke]

I feed raw and wean puppies to raw, starting with veggie/meat mixture at about three weeks and adding chicken backs cut in quarters as soon as they will eat the veggie/meat mixture.

Before I began feeding raw I weaned to adult food softened in hot water and put through blender.

[Sharon Marples]

I start our pups out at about 16-17 days of age (as soon as their eyes are open and they can reasonably stand up and walk). I use a mix of Gerber's baby cereal and mix it with warm water to the consistency of pancake batter. I also add a bit of yogurt, some canned milk, a spoon of mayo and an egg yolk. I just dip their little mouths in it and watch them go! All our litters have always loved it and thrived on it.

As the days go by, I continually make it a bit thicker, and start adding water soaked adult kibble to the mixture (I never use puppy food). Eventually, at around 5 - 51/2 weeks of age, the baby cereal is weaned out and the pups are on regular adult food, softened so they can eat it easily.

We always supplement with yogurt, eggs and/or buttermilk.

[BostonRott]

I do a mixture of both, as my dogs all eat both (raw and kibble).

They start with a puppy kibble which is powderized in the blender, then mixed with either Esbilac or warm water. They also get to try out yogurt and cottage cheese (what a funny mess!!!).

They also get to try the Bravo ground raw stuff, either chix necks/backs, or one of the mixes with veggies etc.

We start trying the pups on stuff around 3 weeks, and by about 5-5.5 weeks, they're eating most of their food. Around 7 weeks, I start trying kibble soaked in warm water to soften it and get them to really start chewing.

They're also offered chix wings for chewing. :)

[poohbearsmom]

(This is better than epicurious.com LOL)

At, or around 3 weeks, I mix a mash of Gerbers baby cereal with kibble, soaked in a formula made with goat milk, plain yogurt, egg yolk (no whites!!), hot water and a drop of honey.

Each week, I soak the mash for a shorter period of time, so that by 5-7 weeks, it's pretty crunchy, and they have something to chew on.

Remember!!! Once you start feeding other than mama's milk... PROVIDE PLENTY OF FRESH WATER FOR THE PUPS TO DRINK....

Have fun! Mama will likely enjoy cleaning the leftover food off the pups. :)

[Lorrie]

Thanks everyone! This is great stuff .. the pups are 4 weeks old today and we started offering them some straight Esbilac last nite .. it was a big (although messy) hit!

This morning in my sleep deprived state I was mixing some cooked rice (boiled in chicken stock) that mama dog has been eating along with some other yummy stuff in the blender and god knows why - I thought I would open the lid to take a peak - HA! Not a good idea - spend the next 20 mins wiping puppy breakfast off me, the windows, the walls, the dogs, the cat ... :D :D

The pups thought it was great - once they finally got it !:)

[Lorrie]

One other question ... with 7 of the little stinkers:D how often and how much should they get?

Also Mama dog is having a bit of trouble with two back teats .. they seem quite full and somewhat sore .. pups are suckling on them but you can tell she is uncomfortable .. what can I do to help her?

The pups are certainly NOT gentle when it comes to mealtime and now they have teeth and nails .. mama has started standing to nurse .. that's quite the site .. talk about suction power! And you should hear them when they are wanting her .. they sound like a flock of seagulls at Mcdonalds!!

Lorrie
Adopt-a-Rott

[BostonRott]

If the teats are warm/red, she may have mastitis. Sometimes this can be controlled with hot packing and trying to express the pus, other times, you need to get her to the vet for antibiotics. Your call. Froli got septic from mastitis in her first litter,went from "fine" to "septic" with a 104.5 fever in less than an hour.........so do keep an eye on it.

I guage everything on the puppy's weights. At 4 weeks, I was probably feeding them 2-3 meals, in addition to what Froli had. As long as weights are increasing and pups look good, I don't worry too much.

[poohbearsmom]

I agree with Gretchen, you also might try stripping the milk out a bit (don't empty the teat completely, but relieve some of the pressure) and it might make it easier for the pups to nurse them, if they haven't infected.

I did a lot of stripping of teats with my singleton Attila litter until he got the hang of rotating nipples.... :)

Keep her teats clean, use the wet-warm towel to ease her discomfort, and as you increase meals, decrease mama's time with the litter to promote her drying up.

Happy cleaning! lol

[Paulos]

Hi all,
If I understand correctly, less time with the pups should help momma dry up? My pups are just beginning their 5th week outside the womb and have developed teeth. I am keeping those claws trimmed, but my Rottie (Delilah) seems to want to nurse less often since I have introduced formula early last week. By the end of that week 4, I was introducing more moistened kibble to the formula and the pups seem to be doing ok on it. Some get the squirts occasionally.
I read somewhere that to keep pace with the nursing, lactating mommas should eat much more than normal. Is this correct as well? I have been feeding her at least 8 cups of quality kibble and Delilah's teets seem to be quite full and she is indeed supplementing my feedings with her nursing. But, I want her to recover from this with the least amount of teet sag. Should I taper-off the extreem feeding that she has been on? She is quite the glutton (although she is very trim), but constantly telling me that she is hungry. Thanks, Paulos

[Sharon Marples]

You'll get several different opinions on this subject, but what we do is when our puppies are ready to be weaned (usually at 4-5 weeks of age), we separate them from the mother for two-three days. During that time, the mother is only fed 1/2 cup a food per day and 1 cup of water. The lowering of both the food and water cuts off the milk production. At this time it is also suggested to give the mother as much exercise as possible so her milk can be assimiliated up into her body so she is not in much discomfort.

After 2-3 days, we introduce mama and the pups again and discourage them from nursing by putting a t-shirt on mama so they can't get to her nipples. We let her play with them, but do not keep her with them all the time. They need her socialization but they don't need to keep trying to nurse her.

Our bitches have never had a problem with this procedure, have dried and tucked up quickly. Their puppies always get lots of human socialization during this time and have had no ill effects from this weaning procedure.

Some bitches will nurse their pups for a full 8 weeks. I've never had any of mine choose to do that. By the time the pups are 4-5 weeks of age, they are starting to growl at them because of the little puppy teeth bites!

Hope this helps.