My pups had their teeth (sharp) in by 4 weeks and were vigorous suckers...Mama dog said that's enough and weaned them --- nearly everyone told me their mama's weaned theirs at around 8 weeks, so I think it's different for the individual "family", dependent upon a lot of things (mostly a lot of sharp little baby teeth coming in), I started with R. Canin baby dog put in a baggie and smashed fine with a hammer, added some goats milk, water, and alternated puppy nutrical in a.m. and karo syrup in p.m. until they got the hang of it. Then, over the course of the next few weeks, started smashing the puppy food less and less (generally offering really smashed, coarse smashed, and not smashed in the same bowl that way each puppy could progress eating the size that was best for them (I had a runt, that needed the fine smashed food a little longer). They now (@12 weeks) just get the R. Canin puppy (not baby dog anymore) whole, but when they are out of their pen and running around the house they love to get to their mama's bowl and eat her R. Canin "Beauty Care" --- must taste good - a little high fat, so I just switched to a weight control (she's not happy, wants her Beauty Care - lol) for mama as she's been pigging out after getting so skinny while nursing... we had let her eat all she wanted to fatten her up a bit and now (as the vet warned) she would know think she needs those extra calories all the time...if it isn't one thing it's another! ---- ramble, ramble ----
The point to all that is, I suddenly had questions about feeding puppies due to not expecting her to wean the pups so soon, so I don't think one can prepare for every possible scenario (but hey, now I know that one, thanks to all the help from YT'ers.)
Kendra |