When to start weaning puppies from their mother
How to Wean Puppies onto Solid Food - Top Tips!
letting your dog have a litter of pups
is an incredibly rewarding and really
fun thing to do and today I'm going to
tell you how to wean the puppies so that
they stay happy healthy and continue to
grow hi I'm dr. Alex from our pets
health comm where my aim is to help you
and your pet live a healthier happier
life so definitely consider subscribing
down below if that's something you're
interested in three weeks is kind of as
early as you want to be thinking about
starting the weaning process ideally if
they're feeding off the mother dog
really well then you can push that back
a little bit later if they're bottle fed
though you'll probably want to start
it's about three weeks of age and the
aim should be to finish the weaning
process ideally about eight weeks oh how
many puppies will be weaned and rehomed
at about six weeks of age ideally though
we want to delay that weaning process
until it finishes at about eight weeks
of age and there's a number of reasons
for that a puppy that's spending more
time with its litter mates and with its
mother is going to be better socialized
it's going to learn how to behave and
how to be a dog a lot better learning
things like bite inhibition for example
and also getting Mother's Milk is going
to really optimize their growth there's
nothing like mothers their mother's milk
to make sure that they're growing and
they're getting everything that they
absolutely need and the first step of
weaning is deciding what to actually
feed them you can buy a puppy weaning
formula but equally you can just select
an appropriate puppy food so if you've
got a small dog you'd want a small breed
puppy food a large dog a large breed
puppy food
that's a completely balanced diet and
you want to mix mix that into kind of
gruel consistency so soak it in water or
you could soak it in puppy milk mash it
up so that it's kind of a girl you don't
want it to be blending it and to be
super fine because you want your puppy
to be getting used not just to the
flavor but also to the texture and
having to have something more solid in
its mouth and having to chew now like I
say you want to mix that with water or
puppy milk you want to avoid using cow's
milk because that could cause them a bit
of a tummy upsets and it doesn't provide
everything that they need so either
choose a puppy gruel or a puppy food and
make that into a gruel like consistency
and you want to feed this food in a
really shallow dish so that could be a
tray or a really shallow dish you don't
want to be using a bowl certainly
anything with deep sides because it
could be that your puppy could fall into
that they could even drown which you
clearly want to avoid so you don't want
it to be too deep and also weaning is
just a messy business so your puppy is
going to walk through it they're going
to get absolutely covered so be prepared
for that mess have an area that set
aside where you've got lots of newspaper
down for example so that you can keep it
nice and clean and tidy but having a
tray will just help them to get that
food to get used to kind of being around
that food and get the weaning process
started and then to encourage your puppy
to start eating that you want to put it
down fresh at times when they're going
to be hungry too when they've just woken
up is a classic example of this you also
could warm it up you could have them
lick it off your finger as well just to
encourage they're kind of first few
mouthfuls to get them used to that taste
that flavor and get them eat and as they
get used to eating the food and as
they're eating more and more they're
lapping it up you could actually start
to thicken it up so add less water or
add less puppy milk so it becomes a
thicker consistency and start leaving
some larger chunks in there as well so
they get used to taking the proper food
into their mouth and having to chew and
work for their food the other thing that
you want to be doing is make sure you're
always putting down plenty of fresh food
so you don't want to leave it down for
hours and hours
drying out going a little bit stale
because your puppy's going to be less
likely to eat it then and that's going
to be especially important if the
weather is warm or there's lots of flies
and while the process of weaning your
puppy continues you can actually take
them away from their mother for longer
periods of time so they're going to be
suckling less they're going to be
getting less milk from your dog and so
they're going to be more hungry and more
likely to eat their food at all times
you should always have fresh water
available as well because it's really
important that you don't want them to
get dehydrated and it's also really
important that you keep a close eye on
your puppy's weight so that you know
that they're always continually gaining
weight because that's a sign that
they're getting enough energy they're
getting enough nutrition and they're
eating enough and they're not kind of
starving themselves if their weights are
dropping or if their weights a
plateauing and staying the same then
really you're going to be want to
supplementing them with some puppy milk
you may be increasing the bottle feeding
that you're doing
your bottle feeding your puppy or allow
the more time with their mother just so
that they do get the energy and the
nutrition that they need so they can
grow and be as happy and healthy as
possible so as you're coming to the end
of rehoming your puppy you need to start
thinking about vaccinations and also
socialization and I've got two videos on
the screen at the moment all about that
but that's it for me until next time I'm
dr. Alex this is our pets health because
they're family
