hi all, i havent really posted much as my girl is doing a lovely job and not giving me anything to worry about!!
her pups are 17 days old now, all big n chunky if a bit lazy!
all opened thier eyes at day 14 and are now starting to get up n about a bit, they still seem happy enuff to just have milk are content and putting on wieght .......im thinking about thier weaning plan now and just wondered if i could run it past people?? this is only my second litter and the last time went horribly wrong (mum had a fit at 3 weeks and was at vets for days on a drip....it was horrendus) anyway that meant weaning pups straight away and if im honest it was all quite haphazerd and with the worry of mum etc.
as soon as they seem to stop thriving on milk i thought proberbly in the next week or so offer very milky weetabix(1/2 weetabix between 4 pups just once a day to start?) is it better to seperate mum from pups for an hour or so to encourage them? is it better to finger feed them individually at first until they get used to lapping thier food or just put down some food at let them get on with it? if they eat whats offered do i feed as much as they can eat or will it upset thier tummys? how many meals and how much should they be eating by 4/5 weeks? when is it reasonable to expect them to be eating puppy food without milk? will all this happen naturally or is it better to start seperating mum and pups around feeding time? i have lots more questions but my lil girl just woke up so thanks for any replys
emma

Hi,
What I do with my litters is, at 3 weeks, take each one individually on my lap and offer it a teaspoonful (max) per day of scraped raw beef pulp from my finger. They usually fall on this as if they've never had a meal in their lives and I gradually increase the amounts and variety of solid offered. I don't add a milky feed till about 4 or 5 weeks.
:)

How many pups have you got. I start the same way as your other reply but then I go on to a good puppy food soak in warm water so that it is sloppy - this I do at 3-4 weeks. Milky food come next because they are still getting milk from mum. I am using a puppy porridge but I have used lambs milk which is ok for pups and is cheaper, the pups love it and so do the adults. To this I add Weetabix or Ready Brek this is given morning and evening and then puppy food the other meals.

We have a different regime from theother posters.  At 3 introduce 1 meal a day of puppy porrides, made using pre-soaked puppy complete (Eukanuba or Royal Canin) mixed with warm goats milk.  I use a "mouli baby" type thing to blend it.  Gradually increase number of feeds when they are taken eagerly, then reduce the milk until at 6 weeks they are just eating the softened complete food.  have found with Royal Canin that at ths stage you dont need to still soften it, they just love it as it is.
bye
Gwen

I use the same method as Gwen, but at 4 weeks I will give minced meat at one of the 4 meals, a different sort on different days (some like the chicken with bone minced in).

I ideally like to give them their first taste on day 18, then next day offer it to them twice, then day 20 three times, and at 3 weeks they are getting 4 tiny meals.  I do this so that when they are w2ormed at 3 weeks I can be sure to give it on a full tummy thereby reducing any adsverse effects of the wormer.

The food is the consistency of porridge or gruel, and initially I give it to them one at a time with the flat plate raised under the chinto stop them getting their feet in it.

I gradullay increase the solid part ot the feed, and stop the milk once they are fully weaned if their poos are getting a bit loose, but continue with it until they leave otherwise.  I use Litterlac, or Nutrolac (the latter is made from Goats Milk).

If pups have seemed hungry and weight gain seemed a bit slow, or slowing down I have started weaning as early as when the eyes first open.

My last litter were so well fed that they wouldn't take more than a mouthful until 4 weeks plus, but Mum had them cxompletely weaned within a week of that, at 5 1/2 weeks, which most of my girls do.

Mums are known to give the odd comfort suck after this, but not a proper feed.

thanx for everyones replys, its really helped this website is soo helpful in fact every time ive asked a question ive always recieved really good advice!
would it be ok to use whelpi to make the feeds up with? as i got a big tin just in case and i havent even needed to open it!
im going to give them thier first taste tomorrow but since theres only four of them mums got huge amounts of milk.....i guess its just play it by ear, they will know when there ready rite?!!
thanks again
emma

Just another quck thought, certainly with small breed I feel it is really important to have pups at least tasted and enjoyed solids before first worming - it is not conducive to easy weaning ot have first orally administered by humans substance a nasty paste!
bye
Gwen

Ours are reared exactly the same as jeangeanie, we have found beef is much less messy to give than porridge.
Puppies are all hand fed until we are sure they have all got the hang of it, then the meat is put in individual bowls.
Complete food is added to the beef after a week or so, chicken wings are given soon after that.
Our puppies have no milky meals, that is the bitches job, although if it is a large litter from 5 weeks they round their meal off with a bowl of puppy milk.

Julie

hi gwen, good idea about wormer!afraid advice came a bit late tho as i wormed them a couple of days ago...i have other issues about that but im going to do a seperate post(i always seem to b told off by admin!)
again thanx to everyone, i fingerfed them a quality puppy meat mashed up today and they seemed to really like it!
will offer them bigger portion tomorrow a couple of times and see how we go on:)
emma

A few years back I had difficulty weaning this one litter they just would not eat. One breeder gave me some advice.  Try your pups on scrapings off the bone. I did this. I got a large bone from the butcher and scraped off meat. Offered this on a plate and they stuffed it like crazy.  So now I always start my pups off on raw minced beef steak. They love it. Its the best way to go.  I get my mince from our organic butcher so I know its not pumped full of preservatives etc.  You can then move onto scrambled egg or cooked food or even your complete food. But trying the raw meat first gets them weaning very well. I try this now at 3 weeks and they always take it.
Nutkin