Hi all

Not had this problem before so would welcome any suggestions.

Have been introducing food to my little guys for a week now, and they're just no interested.

I get a small handfull of Red Mills Breeder and soak it in hot water.  it gets lovely and porridgey and sloppy.  Sometimes I add stuff.  Egg yolk, teaspoon of PC puppy meat, cows milk, lactolm, weetabix, etc.  They don't want to know, and every evening I end up giving it to mum rather than throwing it away.

They all rush to the bowl when I put it in the pen, they all have a few laps at it...and then ignore it completely.  Mum jumps in to clean up their mouths etc (bowl removed at this point) and they fall upon her teats as if they're starved.

I am offering it 5-6 times a day, each time warmed up.  Same story each time.  This has been going on for over a week now, and I expected them to show a little more interest by now.  They're just about 4 weeks old.

Mum hardly ever goes in the pen now...just to clean up etc.  She generally lays in the bed next to the pen, so she can have peace but still keep an eye on them. So they generally haven't fed from her just prior to me putting the bowl in....but they sure feed off her when she goes in to slean them up.

Thanks in advance

Caroline

Try making it just a little bit thicker.

Fillis

You are marvellous! Just by thickening it up a bit with some weetabix, and they're tucking in like trojans!  Haven't ever used green tripe, but might get some anyway, and give it a try.  But the 'thickening' trick has worked a treat.  i guess because they weren't really lapping very well it didn't occur to me to give them something thicker.

Thanks 

Caroline

IMO  dogs eat with their noses, hence eating things that we would regard disgusting :)  I know not everyone wants to use it but I find good old fashioned green tripe works every time, they love it and mix it with your Red Mills.

Thanks both of you for your suggestions.  All taken on board and will be put into practice.

A small typo in my original post, they are actually coming 5 weeks (5 weeks tomorrow) not 4 weeks.  This is why I am so concerned that they're weaning is not going as planned.

I tried keeping the bitch from them for a few hours this morning, but i cracked after an hour and a half.  Her cries were breaking my heart.  I tried them with food before letting them back in...again no interest.

She still seems happy to feed them, but surely at 5 weeks they should be relying less on her supplies...?

Caroline

I dont use Red Mills, but if its too watery, it may not have enough scent to attract them. The green tripe certainly will  :)

I don't even know what Red Mills is :(   Mind your fingers when you give them the tripe :D  A friend of mine was struggling to rear his GSD's on complete once and I advised the wonderful green stuff and his pups almost took his fingers off in their haste to gobble it down.

My pups at this age were eating but not enough and didn't seem to interested in the food, mother was still feeding them more than I would have liked ---- they weaned when by accident I dropped some of their puppy complete on the floor whilst they were out playing, they ate it like they'd never been fed!  I can only assume that these guys just didn't like soaked feed, plus my vet did point out that they were cutting teeth too and a hard complete feed would feel better for them as they had something to chew on. 

Thanks Schip

I might try offering them a few unsoaked biscuits, and see what they do with them.

Everythings worth a try isn't it.  However, Fillis's suggestion of thickening the offerings seems to be working at the mo, although they're still tucking into mum too.

Thanks

Caroline

Caroline I've never had pups behave like this with their food before so I know I'd have been pulling my hair out by now if I hadn't dropped that food on the floor, the 2 that went at the weekend still had a feed off mum before they went and the 2 remaining would feed from her if they could just get at her.

Good luck with them all.

Glad they're tucking in, Caroline - are they having a good paddle too? :D