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Originally Posted by lowviscosity  Thanks a bunch, I am getting ready to run to the pet store for the food and milk substitute. Grabbing a scale too. Yeah moms other favorite bed is at the other end of the xpen so she can move away when needed.
I will grab some cottage cheese and mix it in with her Royal Canine. She's been picky and ate her wet food that was mixed in with the dry food, but she stopped after the wet food was gone.
I hear the pups nursing and can see most latch but I'm wondering if I should just put the smaller ones on a bottle immediatley since it looks like they'll have to stack in order to each get their own nip.
Any input?
Oh one more questions that wasn't covered in my readings, can I bath the mother after birth? She's a little messy of course but I don't want to bath her if the pups can't find her by scent afterwards.
Thanks. |
I give the canned with cottage cheese separate from the dry. Then I give a little bowl of the milk replacement. I leave the Royal Canin dry and in a separate dish available at all times. She will eat better after the 1st three days. I also clean her up best I can with a wash cloth and don't bathe her until after the 1st 3 days. They seem to stay with the babies non-stop until the 4th day, and it seems to take 3 days for the babies to decide they are going to make it. So I give her a bath on day 4.
I supplement all of them, the 1st day, and then do accordingly, as needed. It seems like the smaller ones go down so I especially supplement the smaller ones. They dehydrate really easily. I put the bigger ones on the smaller, new mom nips, if you know what I mean...(some nips are smaller and harder to latch onto than others) The bigger ones will pull out and form the nip from sucking so that the smaller ones have a better chance of latching on those later. Later, when the bigger ones are off sleeping, I will sneak a smaller one on a nip.
Crying means they are either hungry, cold, or need to potty.. (Mom should have taken care of that, lol) If you have one that is appearing too quiet and weak, I supplement every hour to get it back on it's feet.
This is just the way I do it.. Good luck!