Weaning Puppies

[dkirkuk]

My puppies are now 2 weeks old and doing really well. They are gaining weight before my eyes, are now trying to get to their feet (and managed to scramble out the whelping box this morning - raising the height of the entry is today's job!) have opened their eyesand I can even start to differentiate some of the personalities.

I am planning to start gradually introducing some solid food in about a week. I am stocked up with JWB for weaning but was wondering if I just start introducing them to mushy JWB from the start or do I start with something like scrambled egg and then move onto the JWB.

Grateful for any advice

[doughy]

Hi I started my babies on Royal canin puppy milk, then i introduced royal canin puppy food mashed down with the milk very sloppy Hope this helps

[Sharon]

Mine start of Royal Canin Starter, soaked then mashed with RC Puppy Milk, so it's almost a thick liquid, then as they get older stop the milk and gradually decrease how wet you feed the puppy food, by the time mine are 7 weeks their puppy food is fed almost dry.

[dkirkuk]

Great, thanks.
I hadn't actually seen any good brand puppy milk in the store (just the cheaper brands) but I'll maybe just order some online and get it delivered in time for next weekend

[bluegirl]

I feed raw but mine start on goats milk or tinned puppy milk in a dish, then very milky oats and crushed barley, then I progress to adding more cereals and herbs and once thats going good, which could be up to a week I introduce small meals of raw meat too, which all goes down very quickly. I prefer to leave mine as long as possible before weaning, even my hand reared pups were 3 weeks old before I started, without problems they'd be 4 weeks old.

[loppylugs]

Mine are 5 weeks now,i started them off on R C starter,soaked,mashed up with a spoonfull of tinned butchers tripe puppy,then poured some warm water on it and mashed it up,they love it,they are now having raw mince meat mixed in,at the same time i started them on food i gave them goats milk which is very,very good for them,i actually give them Whelpi mixed in the milk for added developement,too.

[wales07]

I always start mine at 3 weeks with arden grange really mushy like a sloopy paste. I used to start with puppy milk for a few days but found that litter after litter were getting runny poos. The way i look at it is they are still having their milk from Mum at that stage so that is why i now start on the mushy arden grange and every liiter i have had since not using the puppy milk havent had the runny poos of the first few days of weaning- dont know if its a coincidence or not....

[Doggiecrazy]

I have heard that Goats milk is great for them by a few people now. We suggest Arden Grange mixed into a porage with boiling water and allowing to cool. I usually start them when their eyes are open just with a teaspoon or so each so that they get the taste and they start lapping it up by the time they are 3 weeks with a view to being on solids by the time they are 6 weeks. I would supervise them with food until they are around 4/5 weeks.

When I looked into it a while ago I read that The National Research Council recommends that puppies should start to be fed dog food from four weeks of age and the Dam should be feeding them milk until they are six weeks of age.

I think going straight onto the AG slop instead of milk does stop the trots! Our dogs breeder said that with her litter she tried the AG instead of beta puppy and it made firmer poops. Lovely subject