OK now loads of us are well in to this weaning thing and to be honest it is being very hit and miss at this end.

I have established that mine will generally eat what I put down for them but I really have no idea how often I should be feeding them and how much.

I am using soaked kibble with a bit of puppy naturediet or cottage cheese or mince or scrambled egg and I am also feeding them whelpi. I know the mum is feeding intermittently and still has quite a lot of milk although I do hear some 'smacking' sounds which is supposed to indicate a lack of milk. They have gone off weetabix now.

According to the food bag it is 50-100gms per day for pups 1-5kg so here that would be around 240-300gms of food (for 6) or possibly more per day which I assume you either divide in to 4 meals or leave out for them to graze putting more down when the first lot is finished. The whelpi is 100-200mls per day (per pup) over 4/5 meals or 40-50gms powder per kg of weight diluted at the right rate. The whelpi will stop when the tub is finished as I don't think they actually need it and will be fine on water next week.

I'm guessing that is an either or and you adjust according to which you feed, both together would be a huge amount of food for the tinies to eat, they are probably eating about 1/3 or the quantity of either of them at the moment so I'm either underfeeding them or overfeeding them!

I give them a dish with the whelpi in to share and same with the food and they graze as they wish with the mum looking on wanting to eat it all anyway!

What do others do and what do they advise since the jolly old books are not that helpful if you have healthy puppies?

All advice welcome, remember some of us are on our first litters and are learning all the time

Thank you for your kindly advice in advance

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Love your dogs

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Small~Fluffy

Bumpity bump - no one feeds their puppies when they are weaning?

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Love your dogs

Also a difficult question for me to answer, but sounds like you are doing fairly well at the moment, rule of thumb is feed every 4 hours except for real tinies where they can't keep their blood sugars up, this really just includes poms, chihuahua's, yorkie's & the like!
If your pups are feeding well & eating what you put down within minutes, then up it a bit the next meal & see how they go, I doubt you're underfeeding
& if you were overfeeding you would have puppies with loose poo's.
Hope that helps

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http://kojiki.webs.com/

i do it by quess work lol. Its hit and miss.I always end up giving more than they need letting mum finish the bowl up. My pups never seem to want 5 meals so i stick to 4 meals a day.

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love me love the dogs

Some are and some aren't! the biggest pigs aren't, the ones who don't seem to eat as much are and then vice versa and they always leave food ....... better ones in the morning than at the moment

Trying to feed about every 4/5 hours

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Love your dogs

Can you split them up for a couple of meals & see exactly who is eating what?
Maybe feed the smaller ones first & see how much they take,
then the bigger ones! 4/5 hours is ok as long as no less than 4 meals

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http://kojiki.webs.com/

I'll see if I can, I've got two bowls of the same size now so that's a good idea

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Love your dogs

Weaning my lot was a bit harder, because mum gave up feeding them not long after 2 weeks

I started off with whelpi then gradually adding a bit of soaked dry food, so at first it was just like soup. Then adding a bit more.

I got a puppy feeding dish from my pet shop until they were a bit bigger and then used Ikea puppy dish(20p each!), one each so I could see who was eating how much.

I was feeding them every 2 hours at first, then by the time they were 4 weeks, every 3 hours during the day, 1st feed at 6 am and I was feeding 6 meals a day, they were sleeping from midnight til 6.

At 6 weeks they were having 4 meals a day and it was just soaked dry food, no whelpi.

Trying to feed 9 puppies and keeping each to their own dish is quite hard! I ended up having a line right from the kitchen to the back door!

xx

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-MY DOGS ARE NOT MY WHOLE LIFE- BUT THEY MAKE MY LIFE WHOLE-

Dave and Dixie
Milo and Maisy

Hi Dexter

My pups have been having their own food for just over a week now this is what I am feeding, not sure it will be helpful though as I am raw feeding.

I started off giving them a small amount of raw tripe with a splash of goats milk (goats milk & cream with added vitamins) on the first day of weaning roughly (2 weeks and 5 days)

I slowly introduced some chicken mince and then beef mince while continuing with the puppy milk

They will be 4 weeks tomorrow and are eating four meals of raw mince and three milk cartons a day, they stop when they have eaten their fill and Fey finishes what is left.

They also chew on Feys chicken wings or lamb rack although they aren't managing to eat any of it yet.

They are still suckling from mum at least three times a day,

I will be introducing some ofal next week a bit of liver and some heart and hopefully they will be fully weaned by 6 weeks.

Today the pups haven't eaten half as much as they did yesterday, but I am sure it will all even it self out as fey and Drym are the same, some days they can't get enough and other days they walk straight past.

they have played a lot today and slept a lot too my eldest daughter came today and she was shocked at how much bigger they are from a few days ago, which tells me that we are heading in the right direction

Keep smiling

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