how long before you feed pups regular food
 

Lexi just had her first litter on Dec. 5th she had 6 little ones but only 4 girls survived. They are now about 4 weeks old and are still feeding off of Lexi. I'm just wondering how soon before I start them on actual puppy food and not just the milk? What type of food should I start them on as well? Can I give them a little bowl of water or is that a no..no?!

Congrats on the puppies!

I feed my pups soaked dry puppy food when they are around 4 weeks old.... basically just to learn how to lap up food. By 5 weeks they are doing better with it.

I have a litter now which are 6 1/2 weeks old... they've been fully weaned from mom since Monday (when they were exactly 6 weeks old). I still feed them soaked puppy food three times a day... I mix in a teaspoon of turkey or chicken baby food into the soaked food just for flavor... and dry food and water is always available to them... They seem to be eating the dry food also... instead of just playing with it like they were.

Not to brag... but all three of these pup seem "fully" pee pad trained... I haven't had any accidents for a few days.... not bad... eh?

Best of luck with your little ones!! ;)

Hello there ..my Gal also had her pups on Dec 5...She had 5 we lost one within the first week though :(
I just started feeding the pups food/water about 2 days ago...We try 3x a day it seems to take forever lol lol Good luck with your puppy adventures.

That's awesome about the weaning and the pee pad training Good for you...Send some good luck my way please :)

i take my cue from the mama and puppies. At three weeks, mine were toddling over and trying to eat mama's food and standing on their hind legs to reach her water. Plus mama didn't seem towant them to nurse. So I started feeding them wet food mixed with puppy supplement. zOf course they just licked it. So gradually and on the advice of an excellant breeder here, I switched them to Karo syrup, Gerber baby ceral and Esbilac. They loved it. This week I put them back on wet food smashed up with ground dry food. They love it and are even eating unground puppy food. Mama is done. I am feeding three or four times a day depending on if mama feeds them at all. I have taken her out of thee x-pen for most of the day. I only put her in twice yesterday and after a very few minutes she started yapping to get back out. I ouyt her in at ten thirty last night, she fed them, I think, but at midnight, sshe was carrying on wanting out, so she was not in with thee puppies at all. This morning at seven, I put her in for an hour, back out and then fed the hungry babies at eight. Works for me. By tomorrow, I wuiull not be putting mama in at all unless her teats need drained. And even with that, she is not wanting to let them nurse.