Weaning Your Puppies
It’s crazy how fast puppies grow and how quickly the time goes by when you are caring for a new litter. Before you know it, those puppies that were always huddled up in a group and staying snuggled together are now making short explorations around their puppy area. As they begin growing and becoming more active, their nutritional needs increase as well.
Around three or four weeks of age, puppies want and need more food.
Mama is spending more and more time away from them by this time and not letting them nurse as frequently. The puppies will get very excited and quickly scramble for nipples when she does visit them. When it is clear they are hungry and she isn’t as interested in feeding them all the time, it is time to begin the weaning process. The age to begin weaning may vary from litter to litter, so don’t worry if you introduce them to food at three weeks of age and they don’t touch it. Just wait a few days more and try again. With a little encouragement and consistent exposure to the new food, they will begin looking forward to these meals within a week or so.
The general rule when beginning to wean a litter is to prepare their food in a consistency that will be easy for them to lap up or eat without having to chew anything too much. Some puppies will have teeth by the time you begin introducing them to food, and others won’t. If you are feeding kibble, soften it with hot water and mash it to a consistency similar to applesauce, or blend it smooth.
We add dried pumpkin & probiotics sprinkled over the food.
When adding real food to their diet, their stools can be affected and things can get a bit messy for a few days or longer. The pumpkin and probiotics help aid their digestive system as they adjust to eating something more than mama’s milk. Weaning is a stress on the system and probiotics are a good thing to add to the diet anytime a puppy is experiencing stress.
The first time we put the food down for puppies they aren’t usually sure what to do. The litters that are around four weeks of age when we begin weaning are usually the litters that are more quick to dive into their first meal and not just sniff it and walk away. We make sure puppies are hungry enough to want to try the food and have removed mama from accessing them a few hours before we offer this first meal. We place the food in a shallow and large pan and move every puppy around it. If they don’t give it a glance, we may have to nudge their mouth down into it. This makes a bit of the food stick to them and they have to lick it off. Usually once they lick it from their muzzle and discover it is tasty, they are very quick to start trying to lap food from the pan.
Being strategic about weaning is key.
Watch to see how each litter is doing with nursing. How often is mama feeding them on her own? Do the puppies cry to eat more than she wants to feed them? Is mama struggling to keep up with the demands of feeding the litter? If it is a large litter, she will have a harder time keeping up with providing enough milk for all the puppies and introducing real food to them may need to take place sooner than a small litter.
When starting the weaning process, remove mama from her puppies a few hours before offering them food. The more hungry they are, the more they will be interested in the food you try to give them and willing to give it a shot. She won’t be super pleased at being kept from her puppies, but in doing so you are helping them, and helping her milk supply adjust and lessen.
If puppies don’t have teeth when you begin introducing them to food, make the kibble softer or more runny. This is when blending it may be something you want to consider. If they have teeth, pouring really hot water over the kibble and letting it soften is all you have to do. Fluff it and freshen with a little warm water and offer it just like that. No mashing or blending needed.
Start weaning slowly.
One meal a day is a good plan for starting to wean puppies. Offer the one meal a day for a few days, then add in a second meal. We personally feed around 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. by the time that second meal is introduced. The average age our puppies are eating these two meals a day is around five weeks of age. Once they are doing well with two meals a day, we begin offering the third meal midday and keep this one to hard kibble only. You can still soften it, but at some point before the puppies leave you for their new homes you will need to make sure they are willing to eat kibble that hasn’t been softened. A lot of puppy families will not take the time to soften kibble later and you don’t want puppy dealing with the stress of a new home and the stress of meal times becoming very different than what they are accustomed to.
Between six and nine weeks you can slowly decrease the amount of water added to the meals you feed the puppies and randomly give them softened meals and meals that are just dry. This way they learn to eat the food both ways and never know what to expect. Many breeders feeding kibble only want to feed dry and not bother with softening the food by the time puppies are six to seven weeks old.
Do what works for you
and your puppies!
Whether or not you feed kibble or raw, the process and age for weaning is similar. You can vary the schedule and method however it works for you and your puppies. The rule of thumb is to watch for signs of them needing more food than mama providing them. Be patient and strategic about meal times. Have a schedule and a plan. As you increase puppy meals with real food, you will need to keep mama away from them a bit more so they aren’t sneaking milk snacks and not hungry for the food you are trying to teach them to eat. As their kibble intake increases, decrease their opportunities for nursing.
If you follow a carefully thought out schedule, the weaning process is almost flawless and mama’s milk supply decreases slowly and naturally over a couple of weeks. The goal is to have her milk supply dried up by the time you are releasing puppies to their new families. That age will vary from eight to ten weeks of age, depending on the breeder.
Weaning isn’t just about providing food to puppies. It is a time when they begin learning that you are a source of pleasure and provision. It is also a great time to begin teaching them some manners. Hold the food tray above them until all have given up on jumping around in anticipation of the food, and once they are politely sitting quickly place it down with happy words of praise. They will very quickly learn what you want and you can introduce the word “sit” as well. By the time they leave your care, they’ve already learned some important manners that will be impressive to your puppy families.
Weaning is a process. Follow the same basic rules with each litter and adjust things as needed for that specific litter. Don’t worry if they aren’t doing things exactly at the same time someone else has told you they should. No two litters or situations are the same. Do what works for you and for your puppies.