Puppy food
 

puppies are 4 wks old and the mommy is not nursing them near as much she doesnt even want to stay in there with them. Her belly is a mess from their claws-so sharp. Can i start feeding them the same puppy food I have been feeding her purina beneful (she was under weight) and wet it?
i tried to put pics on but cant get the resize option to work.
please advise I am not a breeder i rescued her along with her companion yorkie and a 1 1/2 yr old boy.
Thank you

First of all, have you cut the puppies toenails? You should have started cutting them a couple of weeks ago. I just use small fingernail clippers and just clip off the sharp ends.

As for the food, yes, you need to start offering them food. In my opinion, Beneful is one of the worst dog foods on the market, it is loaded with grains and soy. I recommend a high quality food like Canidae, Chicken Soup Puppy or Solid Gold Wee Bits.

I introduce mine to ground up dry food at around 4 weeks, as soon as the puppies are able to start walking. I put Chicken Soup dry puppy food in a blender and grind it until it is very fine. I put this ground dry food in a bowl in the x-pen with the pups along with a small bowl of water. The puppies will go over and start licking the dry food. As the puppies get older they will start eating more and more of the dry food and mom will slowly dry up. Usually by 8 weeks the pups are nursing very little. All my moms have always had plenty of milk so I never felt it was necessary to make the mush. Some breeder prefer to wean them on mush. Either method will work but I have found the dry food method works best for me and it is a lot less messy.

I do the exact same thing as bjh. Additionally, I also have mom's food (which is the same thing that I grind up for the puppies) and water available to them at all times. They will also start nibbling on her food.