Puppies' First Solid Food

[rpcrowe]

Mimi's five puppies are four weeks old and have told us that they are hungry for more than mom's milk can supply.

We transition puppies from mom's milk to solid food by grinding puppy kibble in a food processor and then making a gruel with warm water. These puppies loved it. Sometimes it takes a lot to get puppies to eat the gruel but, these five wolfed it down from the start



Four promptly fell asleep when their bellies were full but, one continued eating.



We usually feed the pups this gruel for a while and mom will supplement it with her milk. We then start reducing how fine we grind the kibble and mom will cut down her feeding as the pups develop their teeth; until, eventually, the pups are eating puppy kibble without any grinding. This process usually takes a couple of weeks.

As the puppies grow and need more food we will increase the size of the bowl we use. Sometimes when we have one or two gluttons, we will transition to feeding the pups individually so one or two won't get the lion's share of food. That becomes a bit of a chore but is necessary to prevent overeating by some pups and under eating by the less aggressive.

We transition large litters sooner than one or two puppy litters since the mom often needs help feeding a large litter

BTW: Five puppies is a large litter for a Maltese-mix mom. This litter is three boys and two girls...

It won't be long before the aggregate weight of the puppies exceeds the weight of mom

[ionian]

Very cute!

[Shadowman]

Nice too see them sharing. Nicely captured.

[IzzieK]

Hard work for sure. You got the patience! Is it only you and your wife doing this kind of work at your rescue home? Or do you have other volunteers? Just curious...

[rpcrowe]

We have volunteers who have fosters at their homes.

However we take care of all the dogs who live with us. Our house is usually our organization's nursery for moms and babies as well as the infirmary for sick and injured dogs since we are well set up here and my wife is a retired registered nurse.

We also have a really remarkable vet who gives us very decent rates. She has probably seen a thousand of our dogs over the years for simple stuff like deworming through very complicated surgeries. We have never had a single problem with her care. She has a large staff and we can just walk in any time without an appointment for just about everything except surgeries...

[bnnrcn]

They are so cute

[Marie Hass]

I don't comment often enough how much I enjoy your pictures, Richard.

I have loved seeing all the rescues that have been the recipients of you and your wife's TLC.

Marie