Hi, I have had to wean my 17 day old pups early (their mum is in the vets and has been given Galastop to dry her milk up) and they are tucking into minced beef and RC Starter and are lapping Nutralac puppy milk. How many meals should they have a day please and do they need a night feed. They are a large breed Gundog with very good appetites!

Thank you,

Why have you taken Mum off them? 

This is the age I start weaning mine onto 4 meals a day, but then Mum has free access to them, and will be feedign in between and at night.

I would imagine they will need at least 6 meals a day and probably feeding at night if Mum won't be allowed to feed them.  As this would be the period of peak lactation.

you will still need to be feeding them every 4h around the clock till pups are about 4weeks old then you could give last meal about 11pm and 1st meal in the morning around 6am till there 5weeks ,i have a large breed ,at 5weeks i give mine 5 meals though the day and dont feed at night but do leave water for them ,hope your girl is ok? x

Hi, Their Mum is in the vets with septic Mastitis.

Is that just one gland or all though. 

My Jozi had one gland with mastitis and had a temperature being quite under the weather when her pups were 10 days old.

I had to strip the affected gland of what looked like Tonatoe, then Mushroom soup.

Pups continued feeding from unaffected glands, with hardly any drop in rate of weight gain, bitch was on strong AB's for 2 weeks.  Therre was no problem with teh pups trying to feed off the affected gland until it was sorted.

I was fortunate to have a vet that was more au fait with breeding than most, so told me to continue letting bitch feed the pups.

Hi, It is through nearly all of them and the milk was causing the pups to have the runs, plus her temperature is very high. The vet has her on antibiotics going in through a drip as the oral ones were not touching it and she has to stay in to get her temperature down. The strong antibiotics are not suitable for puppies, so she has been given Galastop to dry her milk up, therefore no suckling when she comes home.

That is an awful shame as it will be hard on her, and of course the pups will need adult dogs for social reasons.

You may be able to rig up some form of clothing to cover her torso so she can still look after the pups but not feed them.

Certainly they will need feeding 4 hourly with perhaps 6 hours overnight, or the next two weeks or so.  After that they may be OK with 5 meals a day, slowly reducing the puppy milk. 

I would probably be looking at 4 meals of puppy food with milk and the rest milk feeds, initially slightly thickened with the puppy food until they have the hang of drinking..

Hi, The granny to the pups has been toileting them and suckling them (with no milk) bless her and I have another 2 dogs here - so plenty of interaction. I have bought a dog trouser suit to put on my bitch when she comes home, so she can be in with them but not suckle. Thanks for the advice :-)

Hope all goes well for you from now on.