Hi everyone..

A group of people looking after a stray mother and her pups need some help on what to feed them, and anything else that needs to be done... they basically don't know anything about looking after dogs. Could someone help with some info please? Thx.

Why is it so hard to get some help? PLEASE??? I know a lot of you are breeders and have SOME info on how to look after a mother and her pups. PLEASE????

Maiko - to help posters answer could you give a breed and approximation of the pups age and also number in litter.

Hopefully armed with the answers to these questions advice will come flooding in :)

Maiko, If you would like to e mail me sighthounds@hotmail.com, and give me details ie age, breed, number of pups, anything you can think of, Ill do my best to help

Another thought, perhaphs a bit closer to where you live, have you a good vet, who could give you advice? :)

Hi, it really would be helpful to have some more details like how old approx the puppies are and how many there are and the size/ type of the mum. It also depends what the mother has been fed, but as she is a stray perhaps nobody knows. They can feed the best diet that they can afford and will get advice from a pet shop. Omega Energy is an affordable complete food and in my experience gentle on tummies , I would try her on it soaked in hot water for half an hour brfore feeding or dry and see what she prefers. If money is no object then I really would get advice from a vet, but I would avoid puting her on a very high protein food too quickly if she is not used to it. Once she is used to complete feeding you could try changing her on a better quality one like Nutro. You can add a very little (to start with) good quality tinned meat like Pedigree (chicken) or Butchers Tripe Mix ( in tins) Start off with a couple of mugfuls 3 times a day,for a couple of days, if her tummy stays ok, increase the food gradually til she eats as much as she wants. Its usually best to remove the food in between mealtimes. Its important for her to have access at all times to fresh water. She and the puppies wil need worming, buy from a vet over the counter, when they are about 3-4 weeks old, then again 3 weeks later. This is very important. Keep the pups nails short with "human" nail clippers, not forgetting the dew claws. If they are long haired the puppies will need the hair around their bottoms trimming back so they dont soil themselves. I dont know why no one else has been helpful - have I mised something?

Thanks WestieLover. Sorry about the last post everyone, I was getting quite upset.

These are some pics:

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid33/p2bdc5dc1e859aa5a60dd753e997206f9/fd408ae7.jpg
http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid33/p015536c16fccbbee6c8bce43b23f899d/fd408ae6.jpg

There are 8 pups altogether. At the moment the pups are about 2 weeks old. At the time when these pics were taken they were less than a week old. The mom is short hair, completely mongrel, no idea of the heritage, but she's a medium sized dog as you can see from the second pic. She's a stray that was hanging around the company (industrial area I think), and some people took her in when she had the pups. I don't think they'd want to incurr a lot of costs. (Personally I think the family might be better at a rescue center.. but oh well.) I'm just trying to help by getting more info so they're not completely in the dark when looking after the pups.

Ok.. a complete food for mom, keeping an eye on her tummy. Plenty of water. What about the pups? When should they start to be weaned?
Worming at 3-4 weeks for pups, as well as for mom. Ok. What about vaccinations? What age is good for them to be separated from their mom for adoption? 7-8 weeks? Any other tips?

They are gorgeous

I've put the links here to make it easier for people to look
picture of pups
picture of mum + pups

I wish I was able to advise and help Maiko - I've only ever had them from 8 weeks onwards though. I hope all works out OK :D Maybe a good job you're the other side of the world or I might have wanted one myself !!!

Sara :)

edited - ah ha - Admin has snook in in the meantime and made your links clickable ;)

Arnt they lovely
Gina :)

hi, the momma dog will need lots of nourishing good food,especially as she approches maximum milk production(around 3wks)regardless of breed, add bonemeal to her evening meal to cover any calcium deficiancy,if she loses weight give her minced chicken(raw) twice aday,1lb for breakfast and 1lb at tea time,offer compleat at all times if she is not a pig,or give a large mugfull for lunch,
when the puppies are 3/4 weeks old start the puppies on a golf ball size of minced chicken/beef, only once at first then the seconed day offer it twice, untill all the pups are eating four meals per day, i recomend eukanuba pup/junior(select size for breed)once the pups are happy eating their sloppy mince add some puppy food well soaked,
at 7wks they should be on 3 meals per day,,,,,i do nt take the momma away , but she will need rest times away from the pups,(sometimes all day) then back with the pups at night, i stagger the pups leaving over a period of a week to let the bitch dry up naturally,
this feeding method has very little change in poop( good solid poops)
iam guessing the size of dog to be medium , so ajust amounts to fit size of dog,
hope this helps
regards

Sorry to disagree, but 7 week old pups, should be fully weaned and bo on at least four meals a day

I thought pups generally start to be weaned around 5 weeks? ??

Maiko
I wean at three weeks and only let mom have them at night at 4 weeks .
I make up for mom by feeding 4 times a day .
then the whole night with mom allows me sleep for my shift each morning , I wonder why my girls love me.:D They are away from mom fully by five weeks
Seriously if a mom is with the puppies that long they would just take the good out of her.
puppy farmers and such like let the pups on mom untill sold .
Mari

Mari,
I would strongly diaagree. Maybe it is different breeeds, but my puppies stay with their Mums, or rather Mums stay with their pups until they are sold, or if staying here, permanently. My bitches would be most distressed if kept away from their pups, but they can come away from them whenever they wish, by hopping over the babygate.

My bitches usually start to restrict the pups suckling at about 5 weeks old, they either absent themselves as soon as pups try to suckle after she has checked and cleaned them, or she will stay but give a growl, which they soon understand means milk bar closed until further notice.

When milk supply/weight gain has been slow, or slowing I have started weaning pups as soon as eyes are opened. I go by whetherthe pups are looking into Mums food (I feed in the whelping box, soaked Growth formula). If I find that the pups are trying to suck at the mashe4d food, I make up a small amopunt of puppy milk, and mash in a couple of pieces of soaked food (I use Arden Grange prestige for both Pups and Dam), to form a gruel. I offer this to each pup individually on a saucer. Over the next week i increase the feeds to four a day, very smal amounts initially, increasing with pups appetites. The amount they actually eat increases quite dramatically at 3 to 4 weeks, when I introduce a meat meal.

As the new owners mqay prefer a more natural regime, I like to have them eating 1 meal a day of meat and some cereal like cooked porride oats.

Over the next 3 or 4 weeks they will get lots of novelty food items to try, pieces of fruit and vegetables (raw and cooked), fish etc etc.

Brainless I hope you did think I was pointing at proper breeders as to the practise of puppy farmers letting the pups with the bitch
looking over my post . I have been amiss for not saying they do not help the poor bitch to feed them nothing is done to help the puppies or the mom
Re the bullmastiffs Yes they are a different story . They just get up and walk away before 4 weeks and dont look back either :)
They have large litters of 13 14 and 15 puppies Iam afraid 8 weeks of that would be way too much for them .
How I do it is the best way for them itworks for me . Best wishes Mari

Hi I know of a lady called Heather Ridley who specialises in hand rearing orphan puppies but sorry don't know her details. Maybe someone else on the boards will do. I will try and find our more and reply asap.

i start weaning mine between 2 and three weeks, starting on pedigree weaning porridge until they get the idea, then building it up to sloppy solids etc. until around 7 weeks then theyre on 4 puppy meals a day,-theyre normally fully off the bitch by around 5 weeks, -----i worm from 2 weeks onward,

I start weaning mine at three weeks and by weaning I mean I start giving them solids I do not restrict their dams from them at all, in fact I let the mum's choose when they wish to stop feeding as I feel the pups learn some manners from her this way.

My last litter I started on minced chicken carcass' and gave them whole carcass' as play things. At five weeks old, on four meals a day were having a good attempt at eating their way though carcass and backs. Minced meat and veg for each meal although the mince is now been reduced as they eat more of the carcass.

One side effect that I really appreciated is a dearth of poo - Very little and I would be surprised if they "produced" twice a day and I don't think it is because of their mum clearing it up.

I have never given additives such as bonemeal as I feel if they are getting a supposedly balanced diet then this should not be necessary - and could lead to excessive bone growth (and we all know what happens to plants that grow too fast!)

There are probably as many ways to wean pups as there are breeders and providing our pups are healthy who is to say any of them are wrong.

Christine

Thanks everyone, this helps a lot :)