but i need a little more advice, my 6 bf had there first meal at 3.5weeks yesterday, all 6 couldnt eat it fast enough and again at tea time, but today only 2 wanted it, i tried again at lunch and the same 2 wolfed it down, but none of the others seem interested.
I have seen on other threads you put things in the pasted food like tuna, is this for as small as mine or just older pups..
i also saw on another thread i am supposed to stop the mothers food for the first day and gradually increase, but she gives the impression shes starving eating 4 small meals a day and the other dogs food if she can get to it. so how better can i approach this, last time i weaned a litter I didnt have this problem, but these just seem to prefer the milk after they tried the food...

any advice grately received.

I wonder if they are just not quite ready. I don't start mine ( Small breed) till 4 weeks and that is only off a little spoon. 5 weeks they will go to the dish.   I wouldnt' ba adding this and that to begin with as you don't want to upset their little tummies.

Can I ask what you are feeding them?

i was told to start with the weaning dry food from royal canin, with warm water to soak and mush, what worries is me they wolfed it down yesterday, but now there not interested.
the mum was looking a little tired and booby heavy, so i wanted to feed them twice by food a day,as recommended by my vet, to take the pressure off her.
they are a small breed but there so active already and 1 boy is twice the size of all the others, just from milk,which is why im sure mum is feeling it bad...

thanks again for any more advie in advance.

I find 3 1/2 weeks just a wee bit early, it is common at this age I think for them only to take bits.

once they have all had a good sleep offer then food. Dont let the mother into them til they have had something.  Do you lift each one up and feed by spoon at this stage?  Each breed is so different.

The food you are feeding should be fine though. Wouldn't be worrying about that.

the first time i just let them spell it on the tray lid and put it on the floor and they all lapped it up. they are all so well advanced than the last litter i had...

thanks for your comments, i will stop worrying for a few days then...

At this age, there is a huge, huge drain on mum's resources.  Personally I don't think 4 meals a day is enough for a bitch at this stage, she will be skin and bone very quickly.  Her body is having to work overtime at the moment.  I feed mum ad lib at this stage, some nursing bitches will eat up to 9 meals a day. 

so what am i supposed to do when she is to stop, do i starve her for a day...
last night i just put the bowl down and 3/4 had a little each, im sure theyll take it when ready as long as there geting some, it must be relieving th emum a little

I dont understand why you would be starving anyone for the day? I always feed my girls as much as they will eat for as long as they need it. I am lucky i do not have greedy dogs so they only eat when and what they need. But as the pups are eating more and taking less from her she wont be needing so much and should regulate her own feeding.

I too, am confused. Surely the pups are still suckling? At this age most of their food should be their mothers milk and the "solids" just a very small amount for them to start getting used to the change. As they take more solids they will feed less off mum and she will reduce her food intake by herself. Her milk will and should not dry up for a good while yet. This is the time she should be eating huge amounts, not being starvrd.

Also, 4 small meals for mum? Mine would be on about 6 large ones with pups less than 4 weeks old!

>i also saw on another thread i am supposed to stop the mothers food for the first day and gradually increase, but she gives the impression shes starving eating 4 small meals a day and the other dogs food if she can get to it.

Don't stop the mother's food - she's still feeding the puppies and will be for some weeks to come. She's at the stage of maximum milk production and needs all the top-quality food she can eat - probably about 4 times her usual maintanance amount when she doesn't have puppies!

And don't give the puppies too much solid food at one go. For a breed about the size of a labrador, at that age a spoonful of mushed puppy food once a day is plenty to start with, or you risk severe constipation.

NEVER starve a bitch even once weaning is well on the way her body needs large healthy meals to aid recovery.  She will continue to top up the puppies even if only for a suckle right up to 7 weeks.

Her own body produces milk on demand, when the demand lessens the production of milk will to.  You don't have to do anything to turn it off.   You just restrict the times that she goes into the puppies. However from what I am reading I think the puppies are telling you they are just that wee bit early. Maybe the weekend ( sunday ish) you will see the food demand increase.

It is critical really she is fed really large meals to avoid things like eclampsia etc  She will also need these extra feeds right up to 8-10 weeks to help her body recover. 

sorry i might not have explained good... she is eating 4 times a day, twice the size of her normal size dish, and an extra 3 times a day than when not in whelp.
the pups will be 4weeks on sunday and of course are still suckling, all the time which is the problem, it is only a small breed and she had 6 her teats are touching the floor...
I do not want to stave my girl, but the last thread i read on here about weaning said you sould starve for a day and gradually let the food amounts bigger to standard size... so i was onyl asking for more advice on this when it comes to stopping them all together on the milk.

"she gives the impression shes starving eating 4 small meals a day and the other dogs food if she can get to it." That is what you said in your original post! Are her teats touching the floor because they are full of milk or because they are stretched with the pups having to suckle so hard to get some? 4 small meals is not enough - if she is acting as if she is starving, give her more food. They will not stop all together on the milk until they leave her, but she will probably cut them back herself. When they stop suckling she will stop producing.  

im sorry but i also said -she is eating 4 times a day, twice the size of her normal size dish, and an extra 3 times a day than when not in whelp
so she does not have 4 small meals a day, she has 4 LARGE meals a day, way to big for the bread even with pups. i did nto mean to say small before.
i confirm "she gives the impression shes starving" but it can not be posisble with the amount she is eating, the vet told me to start the weaning to give her a break, she is an excellent mum, and her teats touch the floor because there is so much milk, im hurt you thought i would let her get to the stage that pups are sucking so hard it would deform her....

i just wanted advice as their is alot of conflicting stuff on here and everyone has different views. I just wasnt sure who to believe had the best way,

thanks fillis for the advice to feed her more, when i need to feed her less surley when weaning

No, sorry but when weaning is first started the puppies should only be having a tiny amount. The main source of their food is their mothers milk and you should NOT be feeding the dam less, as I and others on here have said.

A small breed only START weaning at 4 weeks though this can take as much as 2 weeks.   Stop worrying about weaning her off and just keep feeding her :-)

Nature does start kicking it.

Until the pups are on 5 meals a day, in about a couple of weeks, the bitch will be their main provider of food, so she needs a large quantity of high-quality food or yes, she will be starving her own body to make the milk for the pups. They'll continue to suckle for some weeks yet - in fact will probably still be having comfort sucks on the day they leave! But as weaning onto solid food progresses they'll gradually take less and less from mum, so her milk supply will gradually dry up. If you try to stop the pups suckling too soon your bitch will undoubtedly get mastitis and could be seriously ill.

ok thank you for your advice, i will stop listening to my advice from the vet...

and will take on board all you have said....

> i will stop listening to my advice from the vet...

I thought you said the info was from another thread, not a vet ...

>i also saw on another thread i am supposed to stop the mothers food for the first day and gradually increase

But if that info was from a vet, I'd change my vet ...

I have found that when the pups re about 6 or 7 weeks of age the bitch will herself want less food.  some bitches will be a bit fat as I too feed mine as much as they can eat (they are generally a greedy breed).

I do not start cutting their food back (though all will be eating less by this time of their own accord) until the pups are about 12 weeks old, when the post partum moult is almost finished.  If at that point the bitch is actually fat I will cut her food down to what she would normally eat, but keep her on a higher quality food (puppy food) until her coat and body condition are back to normal, probably another two months.

As for the Vet, very few Vets really know more than the most basic things about breeding and rearing pups.  Vets are experts in diagnosing and treating illness and injury.

As for her Mammary glands, especially bitches that have had litters before they can become very saggy, compared to a first litter.

> when i need to feed her less surley when weaning

No, no no!!  She has been through an ordeal and needs high nutrition.  My bitches are fed whatever they can manage, you are wrong to assume she is eating far too much.

Even once the pups are on solids they being bigger will be taking as much or more than they were before weaning started.  It is only once weaning is almost finished that the nutritional needs reduce re milk production, but extra is still needed to replenish the bitches depleted resources.

Hi

We also have a small breed and they are very greedy.  We usually offer meat meals 3 x per day but always leave a bowl of dry food at the side of the whelping box for her to "graze" on until the puppies start to wean properly at about 4 to 5 weeks.  When the puppies are having 3 or 4 meals a day, we usually cut the bitch back down to just 3 meals and then to her usual 2 by the time the puppies are 6 to 7 weeks old.  Our breed would eat for ever if you didn't put some control in.  Our puppies usually feed best if we remove the bitch into the garden for a couple of hours and feed htem before we let her back in. 

I agree with other posters ....... vets seem to know very little about eventless whelping and puppy rearing, it has been far more useful to talk to experienced breeders and gain from their knowledge and experience!  Good luck.

I also weighed my bitch every week, as well as looking at her appearance and feeling to see how much covering she had over her ribs etc. I always weigh my dogs regularly so I knew her normal weight, so I made sure it was a little bit more to allow for the enlarged mammary glands and milk etc, and together with visual and tactile checking found I could adjust how many meals of what size to feed each week.

ok, jean, i did see the advice on weaning on here.... but cant find it when searching....

the vet told me that he wanted the mum to loose some weight as she was eating far to much!... ( so he said)her pup are now over 4 weeks old and over the weekend have exteneded their meals to 4 times a day, and still sukling alot, mum still cleaning up after them too, even thought they are all paper trained.....( well most of the time...) so all looking good, thats for your advice..

my other question is, i have my other girl who is a few days behind with her pups, but does not seem to be eating much or showing as much attenion to her pups in feeding as the other mum does to hers.
there also nearly half the size of the other litter, the mum is slightly smaller, and all seem to be healthy and eating very small amounts, but my question is, 1 is a boy and over the last few days has been getting a bigger belly than the others... and whining more.... do you think he has a problem with constipation, should i stop feeding him,i tried by stimulation with warm cotton and rubbing his belly, but nothing came out. could he just be fat.... or should i take him to the vet...

Hi

Have you wormed the pups as a fat tum could be worms?

Wendy

hi lumphy, yes i wormed as my vet said from 3 weeks for 5 days with special yellow liquid.

hes been fed again at lunch and he is nto put off, so maybe hes just going to be a porker... hes very small for his breed so with a big beely he cant walk as well as the others though and i was worried he might be in pain with whining now and again, what will happen if his mum doesnt make him poop, i have tried the wipeing with warm towels, but nothing, is there anything else i can try, and if it becomes a problem how long will i have to take him to the vet, is it serious ...

Just take him to the vet, best safe than sorry.