hello,

we have 8 4 week old pups (large/medium sized breed). Mum does not want to feed them anymore, she doesn't like going into the whelping box. They are now eating soaked dry complete puppy food and really enjoying it!

My question is, how much should the pups be eating? Should I be worried that they are not getting much milk from mum? They are all definatley putting on weight but how much liquid/water should they be taking in?

thank you.

it like how longs string ;) ,ive had this before at this age mum hated feeding the pups their teeth are so sharp ,are you cutting their nails too?
i gave my pups 5 to 6 meals aday to make sure all of them took what they needed ,mum would feed 1st thing in the morning and last thing at night that was it ,i think she was very full of milk and wanted to get rid of it lol but would only stay for about 5mins! as for water i kept it down all the time for them and if they dont drink it i but a very small amount of goats milk to the water and they loved it! good luck with your litter xx

THANK YOU,
I didn't know I should be trimming their nails! I will see if that makes mum feel more comfortable.

Also at this stage Mum will often cut back feeds to encourage them to eat.

As long as your have them on at least 4 meals a day that they are eating well, and they are gaining weight at an ever increasing rate then they are getting plenty.  Water should always be available, but if their food is soaked they may not need to drink much, this will increase as their food becomes drier.

I always feed so that some food is left Ive for Mum to finish off, let her in and they usually take a sneaky suck from her then.

It may seem as if the feeds she does give them are very short but they get very efficient at getting what they need.  This must be so as I notice quite an increase in appetite if and when Mum does finally close the milk bar, especially if it isn't really gradual.

thank you for your reply, it made me smile when you said they get a cheeky suckle when mum comes in. she normally ends up standing there with a pillow of babies under her looking sorry for her self, we always give her loas of praise when she does feed them.
they are 5 weeks now and thriving.
they made such a mes with their waste now they get really smelly as they insist on paddling if i can't get to it quick enough. any advice on how to keep them clean?
thanks again.

I have found using shredded paper rather than sheets kept them a lot cleaner.

I know alot of people don't use it, but i used wood shavings from about 4 weeks old as this is absorbent and you can just remove the soiled waste bit as it appears and change totally once a day. I have a large breed and had 10 pups so lot's of mess! but they were in my garage which connects onto my house, so i had the kitchen/garage door open for the bitch and during the day the pups could be out in the garden aswell as the garage area for sleeping/eating. All pups were pretty much clean by the time they left as they had access to outside all day and learnt this was where to go! This was an easter born litter so weather was pleasant :-)

It took 4 of us to keep all 11 pups clean as they are messy little monsters, we did resort once to do a little sponge bath as one puppy pooed on another ones head when it was asleep, funny but disgusting. Once they were old enough as there were 11 we kept them in a play pen for more space and half was covered in bedding the other half was tiled so thankful they used that to mess on and was really easy to keep clean.