You should be feeding 1 cc of formula per ounce of body weight at each feeding. Unless they're only 6 ounces (which is doubtful) you are not feeding enough at each feeding. No need to feed water separately - they get plenty from the formula. Each feeding should be 3 hours apart, not 4 or 5 hours. They're about 2 and 1/2 weeks now? Hang in there you're almost there. At about 3 1/2 weeks you can start letting them lap the milk replacer from a saucer, then after they get the hang of it start adding canned puppy food or powdered dry puppy food (chopped up in a food processor) to make a soupy meal. You'll still need to prepare the food several times a day, but at least they will eat it on their own and then you can probably lengthen the time between feedings. By the time the pups are about 4 1/2 to 5 weeks you can probably get away with feeding them at around 11 and "sleeping in" until 5 or 6. Since they're not getting any "milk" from Mom I think I would continue moistening the food with the milk replacer until at least 6 weeks and then you could go to water for moistening. If they are having runny stools you may need to change to water sooner though. |