I'm looking for advice please. I had to take my puppies from mum at 2.5 weeks to hand feed and start to wean however puppies are nearing six weeks old some eat with gusto but the biggest puppy and the smallest will hardly touch it and just sit and cry for mum, (she is feeding again) we are feeding royal canin with lactol and some puppy meat (Nature menu) they are being offered this about 8 times a day, I have tried everything I can think of, feeding them alone, together in pairs, putting a little on my finger for them to lick, putting a little in their mouths, but they just spit it out, I am so unset over this, I feel like I am letting them down but I do not know what to do they are a small breed they do have some good gains ranging from 2.4 oz but some times can be as low as 1.0 oz we weigh them the same time each day, they have been wormed 2 and 5 weeks with panacur, has anyone else had trouble like this weaning?

Any advice very, very welcome!

Lois.

I would try some Royal Canin puppy mouse as it got my hard to wean toy puppies eating. Is the food a soggy enough consistency? Its not a good food but try a bit of pedigree puppy meat with lactol really mashed up but mostly Lactol with a tiny bit of food (2 chunks) just to get them the taste for it. If mum is still willing to feed this could be why they dont want to wean as at 6 weeks my bich would not be too keen on them feeding of her.

try some natures diet warm it up in the microwave then mash it with a fork this makes it smell more appetising ,(remember to get it to the right temperature)
Dont worry if mum is feeding again then they will move onto wean when they are ready.

I had to start feeding my litter at 2 weeks, as Mom ended up with a ruptured artery inside and emergency surgery so her milk went.

I used the royal canin starter food, mushed up with warmed up full fat goats milk and they went mad for it.  They much preferred that mixture rather than just warm water added.

The RC mousse was good too warmed up. If something is warmed up, it makes it more fragrant. 

You could also try something like cooked freeflow mince or lambs breast, as that is white fatty. 

Mine weren't so keen on the soaked food. So I put the food into a blender and ground it into something which resembled coffee. Then I added the water and fed it warm. It wasn't so mushy and they seemed to prefer it plus you can prepare it as you want it without waiting hours for food to soak. I added wainwrights puppy food to it as well and they liked that. I had a couple of fussy ones at 6 weeks but by 8 weeks they were all half killing each other to get at the food. During that time I blended less and less so the chunks got bigger until they were eating straight from the bag.

They will be OK. Its an unwritten law somewhere that puppies will worry us to death but we all come out the other end sane, well practically LOL

Lois, I agree about warming the Nature menu.  Have you tried goats milk, as most will go mad for it.