Weaning puppies for the first time.

During the first weeks it was all up to mum to keep the pups fed, we just kept a watch for any pups who were getting pushed out of nipple range to make sure they all had a fair shot at getting their milk and made them a bit of space and plugged them onto a nipple to feed when required.

They were a feisty bunch and absolutely ravenous. Mum was fed as much as she would eat of good quality puppy food sometimes mixed in with carrots, cottage cheese, milk, and apples. Boy did she eat, and of course produced enough waste to fill a bucket daily.

The little pups didn't produce much waste at first, mostly wet, so the bedding was changed two or three times per day and we bathed mum's undercarriage when we had the chance with very dilute antiseptic solution, and rinsed.

We had heard varying opinions on when to start weaning onto puppy food ranging from three to six or even seven weeks of age. By three weeks however mum was getting weary of feeding and was beginning to leave the pen more and more often. Her undercarriage was red raw, scratched and often bloody as little razor like teeth had started to emerge in all of the pups.

We decided to try them with puppy food blended with puppy milk and warm water in quite a runny solution. After experimenting with some paw painting on the floor all of the puppies took to the new food almost immediately. For the next two weeks we fed them several times a day on the new blended food mix, gradually reducing the amount of puppy milk blended with it and on the sixth week gradually mixed more feed and less water until at six weeks we tried some dry food straight from the bag...it didn't last long at all, everyone's jaws were clearly up to speed.

Pups were wormed a couple of times (and they needed it!!!) using a chocolate syrup from the vets, there was little problem getting this down them, especially once they had a taste!

The puppy pen underwent several expansion programmes to make room for eleven adventurous little bundles of fluff to explore, and ended up occupying half of our lounge.

Between weeks two and four of our little pups progress three of them developed puppy strangles - large boil like swellings on the neck. They oozed puss and a cracked the skin where they had swollen up to the size of golf balls. One poor little chap looked like he wouldn't make it at one point, his neck was so swollen he was struggling to breathe. We used a cold dilute antiseptic solution so bathe the boils and took them all to the vet. Boils were lanced and drained using a hyperdermic syringe and antibiotics were administered, and by week six all previously poorly pups were well and very active.

At six weeks we didn't have the facilities to keep the pups any longer as they were getting too large, besides we had only planned to home one dog, not twelve, and much as we loved them looking after these guys, cleaning the mess, and feeding them was a full time occupation. The local dog centre agreed to take them in and after a couple of weeks made them available for rehoming. We understand they were all rehomed successfully in a fairly short time and have even bumped into one of the little guys while out on a walk.