marley is now 5 weeks and has never had a feed off his mum. i was very worried at the start because the vet said the first feed is very important for the pup to get all the antibodies it needs for its immune system. but we've been feeding him on welpi (milk substitute) and he's coming on leaps and bounds

been confused today as i asked the vet what to feed him on now and he told me to use puppy porridge, but when i have researched this online people seem to say they started introducing the porridge at 2-3 weeks? as i understand it, you mix the porridge with a lot of milk then decrease the amount of milk gradually. does anyone have any tips on feeding puppies porridge? is it ok to introduce it at 5 weeks?

thanks in advance!

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...before i even met him i loved him!

i just put a bit on me fingers and put it in the pups mouth

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I would think so! I usually start to wean pups from 4 weeks

....sounds like a good idea - he's got my finger in his mouth any chance he gets!

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...before i even met him i loved him!

I have hand reared a litter a long time ago when mum made no milk
I put pups on puppy food at 4 weeks.

I have used Porridge before, usually start at 3 weeks. By 5 weeks they would be off the porridge and onto soaked dry food

maybe the vet has him behind a bit on the feeding programme because he's such a minature breed? one mouthful of solid food and his belly would be full!
he's put on the corect weight while on the welpi.
i might try the porridge for a week or so then onto soaked puppy food.
fingers crossed!

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...before i even met him i loved him!

I put pups on soaked puppy food at 4 weeks too,never gave a milk substitute or any thing else,well done with pup its not an easy thing to do,are you keeping him?

he had to have the milk substitute, his mum wouldnt feed him then we found out she wasnt producing any milk anyway
i'm definitely keeping him he's going to be the poodles only puppy, the vet says she should get dressed as she's a bad mum
at least she's playing with him now he's up and running around - she just left us to do all the hard work!!!

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...before i even met him i loved him!

Well ya got him this far and I tend to agree with the vet, why let the dam have another litter if she not got maternal instincts. Good Luck with your little man. What ya callin him?
Ooops just noticed your username so maybe pup called Marley??