When should I start feeding my puppies, I have 2week old babies (toy breed) and wonder when I should giving them some food, also what is best to give them & how many times a day.
Thanks x

toy breeds tend to be alittle slow at weaning ,i start mine at 3/4 weeks but this is large breed ....it can be around the 5week mark and even 6weeks before toys want to eat ...you will know when the pups start cryin before mum wants to feed them or try at around 3/4 weeks with some soaked puppy food ,blend it and make it very runny add some puppy milk to it ,if their hunger they will eat it ,but they will more likely play in it 1st :) it can take afew days for them to know its food lol ...mum will love to eat it if they dont ;) and she will clean them up after ...
once food is being given remember to give them water too .....good luck and enjoy the messy part lol x

I start my pugs at 4 weeks, but usually find they are not interested until they get to 5 weeks.

> but they will more likely play in it 1st

Don't you just love it when they crawl through it, then lick it off each others bellies?  :-)  :-)

Mine get fed individually from the outset. They never share a dish, so never have to compete for food, so never learn to be defensive over it.

My toy breed pup have just turned 3 wks on thursday and i have found that three of them have start lapping at mums food so took her out to fed ( she didn't want to leave them) so today i made really runny food rc mixed with water and a little water and all four went straight to plate of food and lapped like mad

My last litter didn't want to eat until 4 1/2 wks this litter is different in everything they do!

good luck

I have a toy breed and have caught puppies pinching mums dry food at 2 weeks old!

My large breed puppies are just 3 weeks and I tried giving them a little food yesterday from my finger individually, only to turn round and see that most of them were a step ahead of me and in the dish eating as if they had been starved :-)  I soaked puppy kibble with the nutolac, blended it then added some minced beed.  They loved it :-)

:) they were ready then ;) bless um ,its great when they just get stuck in ! x

> I have a toy breed and have caught puppies pinching mums dry food at 2 weeks old!

Me too!  I now leave the dry feed outside the whelping box for mum.  She can come and go as she pleases, but pups can't get out.  I only put a dish of wet food inside the box.

My current litter were licking at mum's food earlier in the week.  Today they are 3 weeks old, and I have put mashed puppy food in for them.  They dived in. 

It was when I found pups licking dry food at 2 weeks that I decided that I didn't want to risk choking.  So only leave wet food within their reach.

I use the pups interest in their Mums food as a sign to start the weaning, but after that keep Mums food out of the whelping box ;)

what should i feed them & how many times a day please x

Briefly:

You should have decided what food you were planning to rear the puppies on when you mated your bitch.

Then when pregnancy confirmed started feeding Mum this food.

This way the pups usually have no problem with the food their mother has been eating along with this many people feed a bitch milk replacer.

There are other more traditional feeding methods that include scraped raw beef etc.

Your mentor should have given you some ideas what worked best for your bitches mother and breed.

I have infact been feeding Tilly on the food i plan to feed the puppies,I was hoping for advice not sarcastic comments & if i'm feeding pups 4 times aday i don't want to give them the same thing,we would't eat the same mel 4 times a day, i was thinking more along the lines of should i give them scrambled egg,porrige something like for breakfast and so on, so the puppies get a variety rather than the same boring thing day in day out, i love my dogs to pieces & only have there best interest at heart.

Although it seems nice to us to give our dogs a change of diet every day, it's not necessary. They're a different species to us, and have different dietary requirements. Sheep, for instance - not dogs, but not humans either! - eat grass. Then some more grass, and then a bit more grass. With grass for pudding. That's what they need. If you feed your puppies a good quality complete food four or five (depending on their age and how much milk they're getting from mum) times a day, with ad lib water to drink, you'll be giving them a better start in life than if their stomachs have to deal with many different substances.

> I was hoping for advice not sarcastic comments

No sarcasm was intended.

I like to give pups a variety - to a degree :)  IMO it helps their systems cope with various food types which they may well be exposed to in their formative months when they go to their new homes.  My pups and those I've brought in have had scraped raw meat and chicken wings for example starting at around 4 weeks.  They're basic diet is still mum of course and they get a quality puppy kibble served soggy like porridge for a week or so before moving onto it being dry.  They have fresh water available at all times as soon as the weaning process begins.

IME dogs fed only on, for eg, a rice & chicken complete can get upset tums if moved onto a rice & lamb one for example - even within the same brand.  Likewise, differing brands offering what appears to be the same ingredients can never the less upset tummies.  Unfortunately try as we might many new owners don't wish to continue with the feeding regime the breeder has started out on - it may be for practical or financial purposes - and so IME it is better that they have variety, although not an onslaught of all sorts, just a little :)

Monitor carefully what they eat, how it comes out the other end and how well they are thriving - whichever route you decide to go it is important that the puppies are getting everything that they need

HTH, Teri :)