Thursday, March 11, 2010

Puppy questions?

My puppies are 4 wks old as of today. For 2-3 days they have been given puppy food thats been soaked in water and milk replacement for puppies and the vet said put a little pedialite so they wont get dehydrated. My problem is the mom will not nurse them at all anymore only a couple have some teeth is it normal that she will not nurse them anymore? It seems a little soon to me. I'm not sure if it makes a difference but they are smaller breeds.. Dad's a Pug/Pomeranian and moms a Chiuhua/ Mini Pincher

Puppy questions?
Have you been clipping their nails? They're probably scratching her.





Otherwise have her checked over by the vet, her teats may be sore and/or infected.
Reply:it depends on how much you have been handiling the puppies if you have been handiling the puppies to much then the mom wont nurse them they are just like wild animals
Reply:They are not to young to be weaned. moms start to do this. If they are eating puppy food then i wouldnt worry. they have sharp teeth and mom wont want to be eaten alive by them
Reply:This is normal. At this age their demands are too high for their mother to produce, she gets aggrivated with how much they want and how often, they need a lot more nutrition to feed their rapidly growing bodies. Teeth emerge around 4 to 5 weeks usually. In "The Art of Raising a Puppy" by the Monks of New Skete they feed their puppies things like cottage cheese and high quality canned dog food in the fourth and fifth weeks working up to puppy kibble. I had never thought of the pedialite but that is a great idea!


Best of luck!
Reply:I'm not a breeder, but it seems early to me for her to have stopped feeding them. I have seen many dog families in the shelter where I work; most moms are still nursing the pups at six or seven weeks. Has she had a litter before? It may be that she is inexperienced and/or immature and doesn't want to deal with them.
Reply:When my daughters Labrador had pups, about 4 weeks into nursing them mom couldn't keep up with the supply and demand of the puppies. Daddy was a German Rot, so these were quite big puppies. We tried to use the formula for puppies that was recommended, forget it they wanted nothing to do with it. We bought sweetened condensed milk and actually mixed in baby oatmeal cereal thinned with a little water if needed. We started supplementing on meal a day and gradually increased to three times a day. Once they knew what it was, they would run to the bowl and literally dive in it, when we'd put it down. Once they were done we'd give them back to mom to clean up and stimulate them to go to the bathroom. This gave mom a well deserve break, and she now had the ability to nurse them a little in between. We had 6 beautiful, healthy, happy puppies. Once all their puppy teeth came in, we slowly introduced puppy chow for large breed dogs.





I still have two of the pups (6 year old dogs now) they are magnificent animals. None of the pups have ever had any trouble with they're hips or any other disorders common to large breed dogs. By large I mean they weigh between 100 and 120 pounds and stand 28" at their shoulders.



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