I'm just starting the weaning process with my puppies. We are hand feeding 4 babies after our Lucy developed eclampsia. How I figured the amount of baby cereal or whatever combination you choose to start with, I mix up the same amount of food that the pup would get from the bottle. For example, if a puppy would be fed 30 ml. of formula, I offer the same ml. in the form of a cereal / formula or gruel combination. I use my measuring spoons which show the ml. amounts. I keep a chart that shows how much should be fed every 4, 5 or 6 hours depending on the weight of the puppy, but realistically I feed every 4 hours during the day and 5 hours at night. I also started with 1 Tbsp. of Cereal to 5 Tbls. of Goats Milk formula. I'm just starting, introducing cereal, so I also supplement some bottle fed milk after eating because they get half of it all over the place), so I want to be sure they get their full meal requirements for the feeding. I'm also, only offering the cereal mixture during 2 feedings per day to see how they do, before progressing further. I also wanted to mention, my pups got into some trouble with constipation with Esbilac, which required enema's for all of them at the vet. I was sure they were well hydrated, and had been offering boiled & cooled water between feedings which they loved (I warmed it a little before giving it to them, to not chill them). I googled Esbilac and constipation and got a zillion hits regarding that and a ton of other worrisome details re: the formula. I wasn't happy with how the powdered Esbilac mixed either, as I used a wire mesh strainer to be sure all was mixed. There were so many clumps, it was aggravating. While it's a bit on the expensive side, I chose to use whole goats milk, rather than evaporated and make a homemade formula which includes egg yolk, yogurt & karo syrup. The constipation was such an issue, I just switched them to the homemade formula and my pups did a lot better with the poops within 24 hours. That had me soooo worried !! |