what age

[justmetoo]

what age do puppies start to eat food..?

[jules77]

They are usually weaned between 2 - 4 weeks, depending on size and breed onto porridge type food, or scrambled egg and then introduce soaked puppy food.

[justmetoo]

these little ones are nearly 4 weeks old, should the mum be weaning them, she seems a little reluctant to feed today

[jules77]

Definitely need to start them on some puppy porridge, and let mom top them up if she wants to. I would also give them some goats milk to lap.

http://www.fitandfertile.com/shop/whelping/pup py-porridge.html

[lankeela]

The mum cannot wean them without you providing them with some alternative food to her milk. If you mean will she stop either letting them feed from her teats, or regurgitating her own food, she won't if she knows they are not getting food from anywhere else. At about two to three weeks I usually offer my puppies some porridgy type puppy food (pedigree make a good one or use well soaked dried puppy food, or even weetabix or farleys rusks). I also offer some finely ground raw minced beef, the best quality you can afford, and let them lick this off of a spoon. If you hold a puppy near to a flat bowl of porridge it should start to lap and then usually they are up and running, although often this is actually running through the bowl of food, a bit of a messy business. They will lap the amount they want and then start to wander about in it.
You can add mince into the porridge and as jules said there is nothing better for them than goats milk it is like the bitches own. I feed my pups on a variety of food, so they get used to all sorts.

One thing you will notice, once you start providing food mum will stop cleaning up after them and you will have to start picking up the poo. She may clean up the puppies for a while but this will stop other than licking round their mouths when they have eaten. Make sure she can get away from them i.e. get out of the whelping box or cage as she will become fed up with them trying to feed from her particularly if she starts to become short of milk. Make sure nails are trimmed as they will hurt her when pushing against her to get milk. Don't cut her off from them totally, or else she might get mastitis if the milk is not being gradually drained from her. They should have been wormed by now, get a liquid syrup wormer from the pet shop. Do mum as well with Drontal or Panacur, as she will have ingested some when cleaning the puppies. I hope you have good homes lined up.

[justmetoo]

thank you so much, this was a dog that was abandened because she was pregnant, I took her in and I will keep her, her puppies have lovely homes waiting for them as well, but I never had a bitch before, so thank you for the help, I really really apriciate it....x