At what age?

[North Country Boy 0]

My ESS has had pups and i wondered at what age should i try and start weaning them off the mums teat. they are 3 weeks old this Thursday.

[matthewb 0]

My ESS has had pups and i wondered at what age should i try and start weaning them off the mums teat. they are 3 weeks old this Thursday.

 

I am not well up on rearing pups but i beleive if you are feeding the bitch a good quality dry puppy food she starts to regurgitate it for the pups and they more or less wean theirselves off the milk onto the dried food.

[johnshaw 0]

Hi My labs had pups this year and they are Great, we started to wean them off their mum at 3 weks with crushed puppy food ( Hills vet) mixed with artificial (substute) bitches milk just to save mum from being eaten and they took to it o.k. some quicker than others (one feed) hard work but worth every minute. and believe me they are top notch conditipon.

 

Regards

Shawy

[mustwork 0]

My ESS has had pups and i wondered at what age should i try and start weaning them off the mums teat. they are 3 weeks old this Thursday.

 

We start to wean at about three weeks using soaked puppy food in some goats milk mixed to a fine paste in the blender

Hope this helps!

Lisa

[johnshaw 0]

Hi again I had a ESS bitch (first dog actualy- special place in your heart) anyway dont know what kind of domesticated dog regures for her pups but I think (only human) if in doubt ask your vet, They DO KNOW WHATS BEST.

Regards

Shawy

[North Country Boy 0]

Regurging food???? never heard that one before, general concensus from other sites is a dry puppy mix mix with either water or welpi (dog milk subsitute) and mashed till quite fine and slowly making it dry and less mushy over the next few weeks till the pups can eat the dry mix without it being mixed with anything. Thanks for all your replys though.

[85rob 0]

we used a realy soggy mix of wheatabix with warm water about 3 weeks iirc then went onto soggy puppy food and making it drier

[Geoff.C 0]

When we have pups, they usually have their first solid food at 3 to 4 weeks. It is always some scraped rump steak! when scraped across with a sharp knife, it becomes a very fine mince, ideal for little stomachs which have only dealt with mother's milk yet. About a heaped desert spoon full is enough.

Most of the above ideas involving crushed puppy food etc are ok, and using goats milk is good. Supplement with fine lamb mince for variety.

If what comes out the other end is firm-ish, you can reckon you are not over doing anything.

[North Country Boy 0]

Tried both the pups tonight on some tinned puppy food quite finely mashed up, they were a bit apprehensive at 1st but then they took to it like a duck to water, am feeding them when the mother is on her walks so as not to have her distract them and to ensure that they do not need to feed from her as much. Is this the right thing to do?