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Location: Dogsey and Worcestershire
Joined: May 2004
Posts: 49,483
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05-10-2005, 10:51 PM
pretty much caught up on the thread now...keep an eye on the bitch, this is a time when she could go down with eclampsia. Weaning the puppies, this is a rough guide,
Age 4-12weeks = 7am / noon / 5pm/ 10pm
Age 3-6 months = 7am/ noon / 5pm
Age 6-12months = 7am/5pm
1 year onwards = 5pm
You can of course alter the timing slightly to suit your particular circumstances the main thing is that the puppies are fed little and often .
The type of food you feed your puppy is very important. It needs to be varied and of good quality to insure you puppy gets the right nutrients to build strong bones and a healthy body. Although modern complete puppy foods no doubt contain all that is required for a fit and healthy puppy, I still prefer to feed fresh food to puppies to start with even for just a short time ,I think it is a good thing and gets the puppies used to differerent smells and textures while they are at that important stage of learning about everything around them.
It is ok to start weaning as soon as the teeth can be felt in the puppies mouth, around the 17 day after birth but a little earlier if the bitch is having problems. To begin weaning I give each puppy a small amount of food individually, do this by putting a little food on your finger and then in the puppies mouth, let it sniff..the food texture will taste odd and it may pull a funny face
once it has had a taste let it try from the bowl and put the puppy up to the food but never push a puppies face into the food or he may inhale it into the lungs. I like to start very small puppies on scraped beef, unlike mince it contains no gristle for little ones to choke on and can be moisened with a little water or puppy milk at first,it is very easy for puppies to lick and they love it. I give about two teaspoons of this in all at different times on the first day. This amount can gradually be increased ..I also start puppies off with puppy milk thickened with mashed cooked rice and a little honey, this is usually liked by the puppies too.To make scraped beef buy slices of stewing steak and scrape the raw slice of meat with a knife to produce a sort of fine paste. . I slowly introduce other things off the following list, and to begin with of the four daily meals I feed two milky and two other: Milky Meals
Fine oatmeal cooked (microwave is good for this) puppy milk/honey.
Beaten raw egg with puppy milk/honey.
Cooked rice/puppy milk.
Other
A small amount of soaked puppy meal or cooked rice with one of the these:
Minced raw beef/ Minced cooked lamb/minced cooked rabbit/minced cooked chicken,
Boned cooked fish (coley is reasonably priced) or canned fish (in olive oil not brine) mashed up ,
also you can add Carrots/peas/ steamed and mashed/
liquidised .
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Location: Dorset
Joined: May 2005
Posts: 2,893
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06-10-2005, 03:57 AM
You must be exhausted! 
Hope Bonnie is feeling better soon!
How is she today?
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Location: leicestershire,UK
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 311
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06-10-2005, 06:13 AM
good news, bonnie woke up hungry and ate quite alot. i dodont know if it would make any difference to wether she ate again but i fussed her no end. figured she may eat to please me or something
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Location: xxxxx, UK
Joined: Jul 2005
Posts: 18,958
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Location: Dogsey and Worcestershire
Joined: May 2004
Posts: 49,483
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06-10-2005, 09:47 AM
sounds like you have been doing an amazing job. I have edited the post I made last night and added a bit , it was posted in a hurry after I received a PM saying there were not many people around at that time and you might need a bit of help ......I think I was too late and missed you last night
...keep up the good work
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