I have a litter of 10 day old pups. In the B.O.T.B it says eyes open at 7/10 days...nothing. I know Im probably being impatient...but please hurry up and let me see you!!!!!!!!!!!

They are all doing really well, all weighing in at 1lb 5ozs. Hungry horaces. Mum eating and drinking well too, shes a brilliant first time mum.

10 days is the average, but it could take a few days more. They wont open overnight either, usually it'll be little barely noticable slits which then open gradually.

Have patience! lol  ;-) :-D

Edited to add...
Keep the lighting low and avoid bright lighting while their eyes are opening and whilst thay are still young.

Ohhhhhhhhhh...they have tiny little slits..not jammed shut like before...woohoo. Lol..Im really sad arent I!!

Not sad at all i get really mushy when their eyes open and i pick each one up and say to them 'welcome to the world little one'...now thats sad! :)  Eyes that have just opened are the sweetest sight!

Good luck with your babies

The room is semi darkened just to make sure and the whelping box has got a lid on it aswell:)

I am waiting on my little ones eyes opening too LOL i keep looking at him and saying hurry up i want to see your lovely eyes i bet he is going to be slow LOL because he is the only one here!!!!! hes 9 days old today

I have had wide variation in the same litter.  One pup at 10 days, then nothing until day 12, then all but one open by day 14.  I was getting worried, and know you shouldn't mess with the eyes. 

I had actually booked a vet appointment when the last little one still had eyes closed at day 16.  I had the most awful visions of what could possibly be wrong.  Day 17 I prepared a box with a heat pad, and picked pup up to take off to the vets.  As I kissed him he opened his eyes, blinked and said "Gotcha!"  Or perhaps I only thought he spoke.  Anyway, there was no partly open, no squinting, just eyes full open.  Three days later he was the first to stand.

They do it to confuse us.  :-)

Day 17 I prepared a box with a heat pad, and picked pup up to take off to the vets.  As I kissed him he opened his eyes, blinked and said "Gotcha!"  Or perhaps I only thought he spoke.  Anyway, there was no partly open, no squinting, just eyes full open.  Three days later he was the first to stand.

They do it to confuse us.

oh bless how cute is that story.ah you must have been so relieved to see him open his eyes.
my pups opened theyre eyes around day 12 right to day 14.they all differ id say.xx

My breed never before 12, 14 days is the average.

Ditto here never open eyes particularly early, but sure as hell do everything else before the books say they can.

problems begin when the ears are open too you have to start creeping around a bit  or they all wake and look at you .

1 pup with eyes almost fully open and trying to stand!!..other 2 just tight shut!

ah it took 3 days for all 10 of mine to fully open and it ranged from 10-12 days....some of them were already using there feet (not particularly well but still using them!) by 20 days they are all running around and starting to eat solids....it has been an amazing experience and how they progress so fast is just fascinating. Good luck and cherish each day with them as they grow up so fast :-)

I think they are amazing...I love them all. The biggest of the litter is a boy and his eyes are almost fully open, he was asleep earlier and growling! so funny watching mums face and her head on one side looking and listening. I cant believe how fast they have grown in 13 days.
When it comes to weaning how do I actually start.....do I give them very sloppy puppy food, scrambled egg etc? Any advice and ideas would be great.

Thankyou.

I know pedigree make a proper puppy porridge, but I don't know if this is any good as I have never used it.  I just soaked puppy food and mashed it but I have been giving different things such as raw mince (frozen and then defrosted) fish, scrambled eggs etc....just do 1 meal and then work your way up over a couple of days. then once eating well slowly start reducing amount of soaking. I also give milk in a bowl at the moment and water.
but I'm sure others will have different ways and I'm sure it depends on the pups and breed aswell I know some of mine aren't as keen as others.

I tried the puppy porridge and I must say they completely ignored it. I also tried mushed up puppy food, finely minced (lightly cooked) mince, finely minced chicken, scrambled eggs etc. The only thing I could wean them onto was chunks of chicken or lumps of mince, about 1 cm all round or so (Cavalier pups, presume I can say the breed as they are long gone!!). They did like goats milk too, but otherwise it was like they were saying 'we're big dogs now, we don't want baby food!' :-D

Many Thanks for the help. I wasnt sure if you could give mashed up puppy food or if it had to be weetabix etc!!! I know a lot of breeders give them very sloppy cereals. Mum is still feeding them an awful lot, which is good. The stud owner has a litter and she said she starts weaning as soon as her pups eyes are open at 12 to 14 days...too young for me . I must seem really dim but I wanted to make sure I get it right!

Thanks again

I am just about to attempt weaning my litter ....... I am going to try the pedigree porrige I will let you know how it goes

Oh good luck. Please let me know how it goes. How old are your pups?

12 to 14 days is far too young I think - I'm no expert, but I don't know any of my friends who wean earlier than 3 weeks, and even then it was because the bitch had a big litter for our breed, and she wanted to partially wean them to help out.

Im not weaning mine yet...they are only 15 days old. My stud dog owner is starting to wean hers, she starts as soon as the eyes open!! Hers were born the day before mine, she had a litter of 7. My girl had 3.

Yes, sorry, I had realised it wasn't you who was weaning so early, but didn't make that clear in my reply!

> 12 to 14 days is far too young I think

In a small litter yes, but in bigger breeds with large litters this may be what is needed if weight gain is slowing down with the strain for the bitch.

I have started weaning as early as this and also had pups totally uninterested to nearly four weeks.

If pups are starting to try to get in Mums food (I feed my girls in their whelping box in the first weeks) then it is time to start.

toffeecrisp ... I have started mine on the pedigree porridge and they love it ... started on day 17 ... yes I know it is early but they have little teeth coming through and are so big I thought I would give it a go .... they were straight into it!!!

I start mine at 18 days regardless as I want my pups on solids before I start attacking their poor bodies with chemicals (worming), which I start at 3 weeks. 

I worm Mum daily from 42 days in pregnancy, so consider their worm burden to be low enough to wait until then, having had problems before when worming pups 3 times before 8 weeks, so stick to doing it twice and doing the pregnancy protocol on Mum.

I have found that the pups are less likely to have a reaction to the wormer when wormed after a more solid meal than mothers milk.

Brainless... 2 of my pups are interested in mums food and investigating the food bowl, the largest of the 3 just seems to be quite happy suckling mum any time shes there.Im not really sure what to do now, mine are 18 days old, do I try them including the big boy and just see what happens?

Yes I would soak a tiny amount of the kibble for a couple of hours, add some puppy milk (or more liquid) to make it into a porridge.  About a teaspoon each, I actually give it off one while holding the dish under the chin of each in turn until they get the idea.

First day just once or twice in the day if really interested, then next day three times, then four and then gradually the amount increases with appetite.

Mum will still be the main source of nourishment until about 4 1/2 - 5 weeks.

Many thanks. Will try tomorrow and see what happens.

Watch this space!!!!

minr were 17 days when i started (10 pups altogether so a big litter for mum to cope with.) they absolutely loved it and there has been no looking back to be honest, they are 28days old today (time goes so quick) and they are eating more and more lol....I never had any tummy upsets either, there were a few that were slower to pick up on it than others, but I just left them at there own pace, now you can call them and they all come rushing out the whelping box even scrapping on the way to get to the food :-D

Morning.
Well I tried the pups on food...soaked some kibble and added lactol to make a sloppy porridge. 2 of them were straight in lapping no bother and couldnt seem to get it down fast enough!! The biggest of them..looked at me and said "err no chance!" and made no attempt at all. Will keep trying him though. Looks like the others are definitly ready.

Hi, I've been wondering when my litter's eyes would open, I can see their eyes moving around under the eyelids and the rims have turned black now, so cute!!

I'm also interested in reading the advice about weaning, I'm going to try the puppy food soaked and mixed with a little milk. I have 9 in the litter and they seem to be feeding constantly!!! Luckily they're all gaining steadily and are a noisy bunch!