Saint Bernard puppy feeding

Question
Hello Janna.
Three days ago my mother brought home a 4 week old Saint Bernard puppy. I have been feeding the puppy a milk replacer consisting of the following : A tin of evaporated milk, two egg yellows, a tin of distilled water and half a tin of plain yogurt. I got the recipe from the owner who says he got it from his veterinarian. I am slowly trying to wean the puppy by also feeding it a hand full of puppy pellets soaked in warm water but the puppy has now started getting diarrhea. What should I feed him then? How much of this should I feed and how often?

Thank you for your time.

Answer
Four week old puppies should not be weaned from their mothers. This is too young for a puppy to be away from the mother because their systems aren't ready for solids and even egg yolks are solids. Puppies should never be fed cows milk either because it causes, as you have found out, diarrhea.

Since you have this poor thing now you cannot take it back to the breeder. You need to get some KMR, Nuturall, or Esilac canned or powdered CANINE milk replacer and feed the puppy that. For diarrhea you can give the puppy some kaopectate (plain not flavored) in her mouth or mixed with the KMR. Rice milk might help a little but not much. The main thing is to get the puppy away from the cows milk and egg yolks.

Get some canned puppy food if nothing else and mix that with distilled water and try to get the puppy to lap it up. You may have to bottle feed that for a bit. just make the nipple hole a bit bigger. Place the canned food and water in a blender and mix them very fine.

I can't tell you how much to feed since I have no idea how much this puppy weighs. Puppies at this age should be fed four times a day. Small amounts each time, just enough until the tummy is very slightly rounded. NO MORE.

Once older and on solids, over the next few weeks, you can start with the dry food. But wait until the pup is at least 6 weeks. Start putting out the wet food in a week or so and then daily add more and more dry to the dish. Add a few kibbles at a time.

Good luck and please get the Esbilac or KMR as soon as you can. We use Nuturall here but I don't kno0w if you can get it there. It comes in canine formula and it's a great milk replacement.