Weaning puppies

By Jean M. Sabatelli, AnimalForum.com staff

W eaning generally begins between three and four weeks of age, depending on the mother and how the pups' teeth are coming in. Mom will usually decide she doesn't like being with those pups as much as before and will only let them nurse for a very short time. Those teeth hurt.

We use a three-step process for weaning the pups.

Step 1: Get several boxes of Gerber's or Heinz rice cereal for babies (the dry kind) and about a dozen cans of evaporated milk. For the first feeding, mix 1 cup of baby cereal with 1 cup of canned milk and enough warm water to make a medium thin gruel. Taking one pup at a time, put about a 1/4 cup of the cereal on a saucer. Dip your finger into the gruel and pass it across the pup's lips. They get the idea real fast. Then direct their face gently to the saucer and let them lap up the cereal. Do this with each pup. (Mom will usually clean up the sticky mess on the pup.)

I usually do this before bed at night. It helps them sleep longer and gives mom a rest. By this time, mom should be eating four times a day to keep up with the draw on her system. Cut the amount of all her feedings in half.

The second day feed the morning meal the same way. With the afternoon meal, place one or two pie plates (depending on how many in the litter), each with the same formula, on the floor in the whelping area and put the pups to it.

I feed cereal only for two full days. Never use regular cow's milk for the pups. Puppies can't digest cow's milk and will get the runs. If you are lucky enough to have it available, you can use goat's milk. It's even better than canned. Make sure you are using regular evaporated milk (like Carnation or Pet) and not condensed milk (like Eagle Brand Condensed Milk).

Step 2: After two full days of cereal only, you are ready to begin mixing in puppy food. Use a high quality puppy food from a pet supply store, not the grocery store. The easiest and fastest way to deal with dry food for the first days is to crush it in a food blender or processor until it's completely ground up. Blend 1/2 cup of the ground food (per formula dish) into the cereal mix with enough extra warm water to keep it gruel. With each succeeding feeding, add a little more dog food and a little less cereal until you have all dog food. By the end of the second day you should be feeding all ground dog food.

You should now cut out one of mom's feedings completely, and then about two days later, the other. Which will bring her back to eating her usual two meals a day at her usual amount of food. She will be starting to dry up now, and the process will not be traumatic. I don't believe in the withholding of all food and water for 24 to 48 hours that some people do. That is just too hard on the dam.

Step 3: When you've used up all the canned milk you have, you can go to all water with the dry food. After two full days on ground dog food, start grinding the food a little less, so it is rougher. Or use half ground and half regular. Blend the regular and ground down to all regular food over the course of 3 or 4 feedings (not days).

At the end of a week, you'll be feeding all regular puppy food with warm water and mom will be on her normal feeding schedule. You'll need to increase the food (and get larger puppy pans). I usually figure about 1/2 cup of food per puppy, per feeding until they are really devouring that much and looking for more. I gradually increase until they are leaving food, then cut back a bit. The food will gradually increase until the time they are ready to go home. They'll be eating about 3/4 to 1 cup food per feeding. (These amounts are for large breed pups. Smaller breeds will of course be adjusted according to their sizes and appetites, as would giant breeds.)