Weaning Puppies

[Remblak]

I know this subject has probably previously been posted but thought I'd ask what other breeders do when initially starting to introduce food to their young puppies.

Pups generally have are introduced to their first solid food (meal) around the 3wk of age mark, what do you guys as breeders generallly start your puppies on? i.e high grade mince, high grade dry soften with water, a mixture of cows milk dialuted with 50 % water blended with weetbix or farex.

Cheers ;)

[Sandra777]

Scraped beef, run a serrated knife over a piece of stewing steak or whatever is cheap and give them a piece the size of the end of you little finger the first time, then twice that much the second time. They only get the "pure meat", no gristle or fat.

They only get this for a few days then on to high quality human grade mince. I don't use milk or cereal, I've always weaned pups straight on to meat.

[ellz]

Good quality very fine grade mince initially (getting coarser as they start getting teeth and enthusiasm), straight off my fingers. To drink they have fresh water available 24/7 but I also give 50/50 cows milk with warm water for breakfast and supper.

Depending upon the litter (some "get" weaning more quickly than others) I may soak puppy dry food in the milk/water mix to encourage them to eat dry and to drink from a bowl at the same time, but most litters just get the hang of chewing (and laying in the bowls) quite quickly so have dry food on the side of their mince.

As they get older, I start adding veges to the mince and when they are on separate bowls for feeding, I'll add their dry food and mix it in so that they have to chew it or they get lazy and leave the crunchy stuff because the other stuff is yummier and quicker to eat.

[fbc]

I tried a few things with my last litter.

We started with the fine minced beef, not a great success for us but obviously it has worked for others.

We then tried soaked kibble, again not a success but give it a shot if you need to.

Our saviour was Advance tinned puppy mixed with warm water into a broth/mush, yay success.

Hopefully one of these will work for you easily enough.

I also found they were more willing to drink the puppy milk first of in comparison to water, i just watered it down after a while till it was straight water.

Good luck.

[persephone]

We use large meaty bones!!VERY large- so they won't move with pups sucking ion them.I score the meat..to make getting a mouthfull easier..

the pups lick/suck at first... then after a very short time, are chewing off meat! This exercises their jaws perfectly.I don't believe in using mince for dogs or cats unless they are toothless or very old.

Once they have the idea... (they will take their time at getting a meal, too- no scoffing!) then they get a puppy kibble as well.. DRY. Water is always available.

Edited July 9, 2009 by persephone

[Remblak]

Our pups have taken straight to mince as well as Advance Rehydrate soaked in boiling water (cooled of course). They are still on mum and hopefully will be till they are at least 5wks old.

Thanks for the replies guys

[Lab lady]

I start mine off at 2 1/2 - 3 weeks old and the first meal is lean mince mixed with a little bit of divetelact off my hand, it doesn't take long for Lab pups to catch on and the 2nd or 3rd feed is usually straight from a bowl. After a few days of this i then start adding other things like soaked dry food and puree veggies.