Bottle Feeding Problems
 

Have some questions for you that have or do bottle feed newborn puppies. I have been using Esbilac puppy milk on the babies when momma first could not nurse. Now she is nursing some but does not have enough to nurse all the time. I just bought a new can and they have had 1 feeding from it and now they won't take it. They gag and spit the bottle out. I tried different nipples, made a new batch and still nothing. The formula smells fine but I still have crying babies. Is there something else that I can use on them? Will switching them to something else hurt them? Could it just be they don't like the taste of it anymore? They just turned 2 weeks so they are not done nursing yet.

Any help you can offer would be great. I already have a call into the vet.

Mom may be producing more milk than you think. When the puppies are getting some of Mom's milk and not hungry enough, then they notice the difference in taste , prefer the mom milk and may not want the other milk.

If you have a scale that measures in metric you can weigh them record their weights and 3 hours later see if they have gained or maintained their weight just on Moms milk.

If they have then just continue to weigh and not supplement as often..go 6 hrs or more and they will take it if not getting enough and they are hungry.

I just re read your post and saw that they were crying. That does sound like they are hungry. (If not cold or stressed because they arent against their mom)

Glad you are taking them to the vet.

Have you tried giving them goats milk? That is really what they should be drinking if you are supplimenting them. Use one can of goats milk (you can buy it in any grocery store near the canned evaporated milk) one can of water, and a tablespoon of karo corn syrup. This formula is the closet formula to mothers milk. Espilaca has been known to cause problems later down the line. I would not use anything except the goats milk formula. switching will not hurt them. Mom should be producing enough for them (supply and demand) but since they are still crying for more.. use the goats milk formula. In another week they should be able to lap it from a dish. you can also add baby rice cereal to it (in another week or so) and allow them to lap it from a dish. They make a mess of it and will need to be cleaned afterwards (or mom will clean them). keep a close watch on weights.. weigh before they nurse, then weigh after.. that way you will know exactly what they ate.

That's exactly what I was going to suggest. I use the canned goats milk (from the baking aisle at the store) with a can of water, pinch of salt substitute and a tablespoon of karo syrup (sometimes a little vanilla yogurt as well). The commercial formula has been shown to cause cataracts and I've never seen a puppy who likes this formula for long but they do like the goat's milk and it's closer to momma's milk. Weigh with a gram scale so you can get more accurate weights. Sometimes the mom won't look like she has lots of milk (even if she does) because the babies are constantly snacking. :)
Don't forget to keep your momma eating and drinking lots since she is having to produce all the milk. Sometimes you can get a prescription for Reglan (metroclopramide) to give to momma and it will increase milk production. This is used for humans and I've used it for the Yorkies and it works wonders.

Teresa

I really don't know about Yorkie pups but we had a litter of beagle pups that I had to help with bottle feeding. A very good friend that has raised beagles for years told me to get a "Dr. Brown's" baby bottle. It really helped with our pups especially with the gas & burping. There is a small bottle that holds maybe 4 oz. that I used. They come with 2 size nipples too. Had so much luck with it that several of the young ladies at church bought them when they had there children and said it was great!

I would also go with the goats milk and add the yogurt & karo too. I think sometimes those "puppy" formulas are a bit to strong.

This won't help now but, we always gave our momma dogs "milkaid" before she whelped. Worked wonders for milk production!!! Don't know if you could used it now though with it being 2 weeks out.

Thanks for all the help everyone. We did end up going to the vet just to make sure she was not having problems since she was gagging so much and not eating. I do use the Dr. Brown bottles with preemie nipples but just upgraded to regular nipples and she is doing much better. Her weight is not down but she was just not getting enough to eat and then would just cry and fight eating. She is fed a bottle twice a day and so are the others and that seems to be the magic number to keep them all content but when they don't do their feeding then all heck breaks loose. I will be going and getting the goats milk tonight to have on hand just in case they stop taking the formula but I just don't want to upset their system by introducing anything unless I have to. And with them still gaining weight I know they are absorbing the food that they are getting. Just a few more weeks and then I can rest a little easier.

The pups will nurse about every 30-45 minutes and never get filled up since mom can't make that much but when I do the extra feedings then they get back on to feeding about every 2 hours till she starts running low and on average she can go about 12 hours and then we have pups crying again and back to nursing more often. For now I will just keep going like what I have been and adjust their feedings if we need to.

those doctor browns are supposed to be the best bottles around. lots and lots of moms use them on children

I have a 3 day old yorkie that the mom never fed. I am trying to feed her with an eye dropper. Need to know how much and when to feed her. She is about the size of the dropper.

Tube feed this baby so you know how much you are giving her...that is vital information beause she needs calories to develop correctly....besides, your chances of that baby aspirating milk from a dropper is tremendous. Tube feed her, deliver 1cc/1oz of weight of the puppy formula listed on here....that will give her 14-16 cal/cc.....you need to be getting 1cc per 1oz body weight every 2 hours around the clock into her for at least 3-4 days....