What do you use for initial weaning? I've always used  Pedigree Puppy Porridge but it is now discontinued, I'm looking at alternatives, Royal Canin, Eukanuba etc what are your preferences, good experiences etc I'd appreciate your honest thoughts :)

I weaned my last litter on Arden Grange Large Breed Puppy. I made it into a sloppy porridge initially with water and a little fresh goats milk. Pups were amazingly healthy. Was very happy all round and would definitely use again.

Good luck in choosing. I guess the puppy version of your bitches food would be ideal as she'll come and polish off any uneaten food.

Tanya

I start mine off on raw mince then move  onto sloppy puppy mush made from their food (fish4dogs).

Porridge made of soaked puppy food mixed to a gruel using Nutrolac puppy milk (made from Goats milk)  I introduce meat of various kinds as one meal once they are 4 weeks old.

I've only had 2 litters, but in neither case did the puppies touch the puppy porridge. They also turned their noses up at finely ground meat etc, and insisted on going straight to tiny tiny chunks of meat. :-)

Can't you still get the puppy porridge through pedigree direct?

My first litter only touched the porridge slightly, preferring puppy meat mixed in to dog milk.  After a few days they preferred mor formed food and progressed really quickly.  They were interested in smelly things, mums food was very appealing.

This litter, itried this morning as she's been interested in mum's food and went daft for anything on my fingers.  I tried the prridge this morning, not remotely interested.  At first I thought she might not be ready but soon took some of mums mushed bits off my finger and wanted to devour it.  i don't think I'd bother with the porridge again.  We never had it years ago.

Mine always loved the porridge and did well on but you can't get it through pedigree direct now either as they discontinued it 9 months ago so its no more! I think I'll make porridge using puppy milk and my current brand of adult food in the puppy version as they would go on to this later anyway, thank you all :)

Fit and Fertile www.fitandfertile.com do a puppy porridge, I haven't used it myself but a couple of breeders I know swear by it.

I allways find with the small breeds that if i leave weaning as late as i can normally 4/5 weeks then they go straight on to Royal Canin mini junior or mother and baby mini. I soak with a little boiled water to create  a gravy but dont let it get too soggy. Usually with in 3 days they are eating really well. Then when i feel they are drinking enough water i reduce the boiled water in the dry food so that they have to crunch it. My pups that i have at the moment are 6 weeks and eating the food completely dry with no problem. I have also used the Royal Canin mousse but to be honest you could do that yourself with a hand blender as it is very expensive

Adding boiled water to kibble can destroy the vitamins so only warm water should be added, takes longer to soak in but keeps the foods nutritional value good.

You could wait for it to cool a bit but if you are in a hurry I would not worry too much about it.  You would have to keep it on the boil for several minutes to make any significant difference and in reality the temperature will drop very quickly as soon as it hits the cold kibble.

Glad to hear that.  i always put boiling water on the adults kibble to soften.  It's never hot more than a few seconds.

I pop the kibble into the coffee grinder, whizz to a powder and then mix with Royal Canin puppy milk into a porridge, when they are a little older I just soak the kibble and add the milk, then plain kibble and milk and then onto dry kibble.

We always used the Pedigree puppy porridge years ago and loved it.