Hi there - I know there are a couple of other posts about feeding puppies and frequency of feeds but I didn't want to hijack someone elses post!

Our puppies are 4 weeks old and we started weaning them at 3 weeks when they started to show an interest in Mum's food.  I have built them up to 3 meals a day (7.30, 1.30 and 5.30) but they show no interest in going to 4 meals.  They are very keen for breakfast, quite keen for lunch but then I keep giving them their early evening meal a bit later because they only eat a very small amount of it.

So far I have been guided by them but should I be trying to make them eat more?  Or should I perhaps give them some treats on top of their food to encourage them?  They are healthy and putting on weight but everything I read says 4 meals a day!

Mum still feeds the pups but only for about 5  to 10 minutes a few times a day (although for longer at night) so I don't think they are filling up too much on milk.  She's got to the stage where she looks a bit fed up with them (she has that look in her eyes) and will quite happily jump out of the bed and leave them scattered about when she's had enough!

Are their meals perhaps too large? At 4 weeks, I'd be giving pups 5 meals a day, spread out over the day. How about reducing the amount given and spread it out over more meals?

Thanks Marianne, I will try reducing the amount they have each time.  I fed them a small amount at 10pm last night which meant they weren't as hungry this morning but if I get the amounts right hopefully they will get into a proper routine.  They are only a small breed (adult max 10kg) so I think I would struggle to get 5 meals a day into them.  Your breed is a lot larger but absolutely beautiful!

Does anyone have any tips on making the food more exciting without risking upsetting their tummies?  They are just on mashed up puppy kibble at the mo made with boiled water and a bit of goats milk.

Just watching them play as I type this - they are trying to "kill" each other.  Their growls sound so funny at this age, like angry wasps!

I was looking after two papillon puppies recently, and had instructions on what to feed them etc. To their food I added grated cheese, scrambled eggs, things like that -it had the effect that both got used to a variety of food and nothing upset their stomachs as they were used to a large variety from early on. Certainly scrambled eggs isn't likely to upset little tummies (quite the opposite :) ) and a lot of pups seem to love it.

Thank you.  Just tried the grated cheese as an addition to lunch - they absolutely LOVED it!  Mum was quite disappointed that there was so little left for her to clear up!