Hello,

Just looking for some advice regarding feeding our first litter of 5.5 week old puppies (large greedy gundog breed), I posted previously that we were going to use Royal Canin as that is what the stud dog owner recommended however after thinking about it we stuck with raw and Simpsons Premium as that is what we feed our adults but we occasionally rotate the Simpsons with Arden Grange.

The pups absolutely love raw and scoff every last bit, they are good with chicken, turkey, beef, lamb, tripe and eggs. Only one of the owners will consider sticking with raw hence the need to use Simpsons and I would feel slightly irresponsible if I didn't get them used to eating soaked kibble but the puppies really don't like eating it. I have been soaking it and adding half raw mince for all 4 meals for about 1 week .. they just lick the mince off and leave the biscuits or if its very well mushed it they just leave it. I have tried a couple of just soaked biscuits, nice and warm, they get excited when they see the bowl coming but then just ignore it. We helped with a friends litter previously who had such good eaters, ours just peck at it and aren't really eating that much (I know they are only small) but when I remove the bowl after 15-30 mins or let mum in I'm chucking away at least 1/2 to 3/4 of it at each meal time (including a full meal today) and they're starting to look a bit lean, they are a good size but there is nothing extra on them. Today they ate breakfast out of hunger but wouldn't touch the 11.30am and barely ate at the 4.30pm meal and just cried, as soon as they saw mum they went mad crying through hunger for a drink off her but she doesn't have that much milk anymore. In the end after about 40 mins of crying and knowing they've barely eaten all day I gave them some 1/2 packet of turkey (between 5) we had defrosted, the scoffed it and are now eventually asleep as I hate seeing them not eat and howling through hunger.

my question really is our friend's litter we helped with were on arden grange with mince added for 2 meals, they never had a issue eating and even loved the arden grange on its own. I may purchase I small bag to try but as they are 5.5 weeks do I go for the weaning and swap to the large breed at 7ish weeks, go straight to the large breed but it seems a bit low in fat for very young active pups or do I go in the middle and go for the general puppy junior which is the same levels as Simpsons puppy.

Thanks in advance! ... No idea what they'll eat before bed

Do you have others on your waiting list who will feed raw?

I would try offering the kibble dry. If they won't take that then I would look at some of the cooked diets like Naturo which might be acceptable to new owners.
  Puppies will always go mad when mum appears and they suckle as much for comfort as milk at this age. We would always allow mum to come and go as she pleases.
  Every litter seems to be different in what they prefer to eat. Our last litter - some of them refused the raw by 4 weeks!
  We would usually still be feeding 5 smaller meals at this age 7 11 3 7 11.

I would feed what I thought was the best food and not cater to what potential puppy buyers 'might' want - when there are many of them and probably a lot of variability in that. 

If I thought the best food was raw, I would feed them raw.  If I thought it was a specific wet food, I'd feed that.  Then I'd pass that information and advice onto the buyers.  I would try to encourage them to adapt what I did, not change what I do to match them when I don't believe it's for the best...

Hi have a litter of 5 [medium breed] puppies just thinking ahead of weaning
Any information would gratefully received

I use Millies Wolfheart for my two full size adults
However they do a breeders scheme but apparently I don't buy the correct mix in order to be on the scheme
as little annoyed as been buying with for 2.5 years and spend a considerable amount of money

Any thoughts or suggestions on alternative dry foods would be gratefully appreciated
Thanks
Sharon

I've just had a similar thing with Millies Wolfheart.  They don't think I order enough to be eligible for their breeders club.  I think that is very short sighted of them as I am now considering going elsewhere, which means they will have potentially lost 10 clients - me and my puppy people!