Hi can anyone offer advice on how to get my pups to eat ,they just seem to pick at whatever i put down to them ,they are 4 weeks old now ,i've tried custard ,creamed rice ,puppy porridge puppy chum ,but they just dont seem intrested in food they just want mum

dawn

Try raw minced beef (double minced for safety) - just a teaspoonful per puppy at a time, and given individually.

thanks jeangenie of to the butchers now
oh do i give it to them raw

dawn xx

I think the single most important way to get them interested in food other than the milk bar is to take mum out of the way when sleeping so when they wake up hungry they don't have a choice :) 

My pups (first litter) were started on weaning at 2.5 weeks so by four weeks were eating their puppy food (kibble) almost dry rather than soaked and had their first chicken wing tips :)   I found they preferred food with "bite" rather than mush, perhaps you will too.

My girls second litter were eating whole chicken wings and a variety of puppy foods both dry and moist by four weeks. As to meat, fed raw, either scraped or double minced.

HTH, Teri

will try that and let you know how we get on

dawn xx

Just a note - isn't raw mince supposed to be frozen then thawed before feeding to kill off some nasty bug that can cause a neurological disease? I seem to recall reading about this - Perhaps someone will explain in more detail??

I have a link to this somewhere which I'll have a search for (lost favourites!).  There's also a link somewhere debunking the theory (isn't there always LOL).

When giving scraped meat I've only ever used raw steak, straight from the butchers :)  Minced meat I tend to freeze and chicken portions, lamb breast etc is given fresh not pre frozen.  Never had a problem in a decade or more nor anyone I know personally who has fed similarly.

regards, Teri

http://www.champdogsforum.co.uk/cgi-bin/board/topic_show.pl?pid=554084

Hi Teri,
The parasite in the link (Neospora) affected my first TM and is truly horrible but is killed by freezing.

Jeff.

Hi Jeff,

I'm really sorry to hear about your personal experience - certainly from what research I've done of the disease in the past it sounds horrific and clearly we should all do what we feel best to avoid our animals being exposed.

regards, Teri

Hi guys ,just to let you all know pups are feeding just great ,they LOVE the mince ,feel sorry for mum though as they never leave any so she cant lick the dish

thanks to all of you for your help

love dawn

xx

Make sure they still get plenty of milk from mum, and that they have access to a shallow dish of water as well. You don't want them getting constipated!

Glad to have helped. :-)

there still at the milk bar lol but think mums getting fed up now as its just a quick feed then out ,i put down a small dish with puppy milk for them when mums away from them

dawn

xx

See all's going well Dawn - great news :)