My pups are now 3 1/2 weeks old.  I am having a bit of trouble with finding suitable solids.  They eat baby rice mixed with Lactol fine.  But obviously they can't stay on that!  Mum is on Pedigree Puppy Complete, so I have tried soaking it and mushing it down with Lactol, but they don't really like it, and they also keep coughing as they are eating it.  It doesn't seem to mash down enough - sort of goes to crumbs (even with water and Lactol) if you know what I mean, and this seems to irritate their throats.  I am thinking of putting them on puppy tinned food, but I wasn't keen to go down this road, as I think the complete dry foods are better, as well as producing nicer poos to pick up!!  Can anyone offer any advice please on what they have fed pups?

I give my pups raw mince,scrambled egg, when I start to wean them they seem to really enjoy the mince esepcially.

I've never used Pedigree puppy complete so can't comment on that but I've reared pups on JWB, Eukanuba and ProPlan puppy foods, all with equally good results. I don't soak the food much. I mix it with warm lactol or whatever and whizz it up in the blender. That makes a nice porridge with all of the foods I mentioned. As the pups get older I use the blender less until they are just getting the puppy food covered with warm lactol, then I gradually phase out the lactol.

I've not fed a litter on tinned food but do find that Pedigree tinned food seems to go through my lot, wheter puppies or oldies.I wouldn't use baby rice. It isn't really for pups and won't give them a balanced diet.

I've have good results pureeing Eukanuba and Beta puppy foods.  I use baby rice to thicken lactol to get them used to using their mouths on solids, Jas, its only for a day or two and you are not talking much quantity.

Thanks for the replies. 

I can't seem to get my head around the idea of raw mince.  What about cooked mince?  I give Mum cooked mince for her evening feed, so maybe I could try them on some of that?

Also the blender idea is good.  I have just been mushing with the back of a spoon.  Maybe I will have to invest in a blender.

Thanks again.

Some foods mix better than others, the easier ones will blend well with just a simple handheld thing nothing elaborate.

Each breeder has their own way of weaning pups and thats what we use to start them off.

We used Arden Grange puppy food soaked in hot water (and mixed with some welpi for the first week).  This soaked up lovely to a runny porridge consistency which we made less runny the older the pups got.   Ours loved it but there's no saying it'll suit every pup.

sarah

I start mine at about 3 weeks on scraped raw beefsteak, progressing after a few days to raw beef mince (when they've learned to chew a bit). As the weeks go by I introduce scrambled egg, fish etc, as well as the complete puppy food (well soaked of course) of my preference.