Hi, I've got a litter of five week old Mini Wire Daxies and I'm having problems with the weaning. I feed my adults Burns complete, no additives, colourings, etc, which I'm very happy with, and I'm weaning puppies onto it for the first time, unfortunately they've got other ideas! I soak the Mini Bites and have added a small amount of Butchers to it, but they are happier to walk through it and slide arround than eat it. I've even put goats milk onto it, as I have no problems getting the Weatabix and goats milk down them, but they still aren't really interested. So today I gave in and bought some James Wellbeloved, which I'd weaned my last litter onto, and they tucked in quite happily the first time but by the second meal they are ignoring it worse than the Burns. Any tricks out there for making puppy food irrisistable, Daxies are usually such greedy little things!

Hi, my small puppies all love Pedigree Chum Puppy Food (in packs of 3 from most supermarkets) which I mix with pre-soaked complete puppy biscuit, using more or less biscuit depending on how much they eat. Or cooked beef or chicken, minced very finely with the biscuit, specially if you soak the biscuit in the broth you have cooked the meat in. I assume you are soaking whatever biscuit they are having? As the PCPF is complete. if they eat only that they will have ok nutrition. Westies can be a bit fussy, but few refuse Febo puppy complete(hard to get in some areas) and none refuse Arden Grange. As long as they are regularly wormed and plump and growing well I wouldn't worry too much, I find when weaning that some days they only want 2 meals and other days are ravenous for 4!

Are you making sure they are not latching on to mum before you feed them....full pups won't want more food! I always ensure Mum doesn't feed them for 4-5 hours before their 1st few meals & that way they soon learn what its about. Another thought for tempting them is scrambled egg.

Hello hound fan
I had trouble weaning a litter I had once, and I contacted
another breeder for help. She told me to go to the butchers
and get a large bone, and scrape some of the meat onto a
plate then grate, or blend it until it was smaller.
I have to say I thought it would never work. I was shocked
to see the pups who would not touch any other food, gobble
the meat up. I then added some goats milk to the meat,
looked pretty yuk, but they loved it, with in a few days I put
then onto a complete puppy food. It worked, and the breeder
told me lots of people wean pups this way, as if the dogs were
in the wild, the mother would bring them back parts of bones,
and they would chew and suck the bones.
Try it!, it may be your answer.
Nutkin.

This litter I have aren't tremendous feeders but I have tried a little raw minced tripe in their food today and it seems to have helped. Also I found a little Welpi soaked into the complete made it a bit more yummy for them. It's the milky meals these seem to turn their noses up at. Two previous litters- couldn't keep them in Weetabix and Welpi, this litter totally different. Keep's you on your toes! :)

Thanks for the suggestions everyone. Mum is only giving them one drink now, last thing at night so I know that's not the problem. I didn't have a problem weaning my last litter onto complete, but this lot definately prefer the goats milk and Weatabix! Anyway, I've decided to persevere with the Burns as I do like it, and this evening I tried the tinned Chum Puppy meat mixed in which certainly seemed to perk them up and they got through a bit more. I think I'm probably worrying too much as none of them look like they are starving to death LOL. I just like to see pups tucking in with enthusiasm!

Hi there, I weaned a litter of puppies last year on Burns minibites. I soaked them with boiled water to make a porridge, and then mixed with raw minced beef and a little cooked pasta. They loved this and thrived on it. They had two meals a day of this and two other milky cereal based meals. Hope yours get on well
Lorna

Hi,

Some puppies do seem fussy. However I always feed mine on a combination of raw (finely minced steak) for two meals and then the other two meals I use Pedigree Advance Puppy 'Porridge'. This mix is a ground up version of Pedigree Advance puppy food, bitch replacement milk and a pro-biotic. I have never had a puppy turn any of this down.

Hope this helps.

Chris