How often should I feed my 4 week old yorkies

Question
QUESTION: The three baby yorkies will be 4 weeks old on Saturday.  I feed the mother 24/7 Science Diet Puppy Morsels.  I need to know how often do I need to feed the puppies, 3 times a day?  Also, do I feed the puppies food first and then let them nurse off their mother?  How will I know if they are receiving enough?  The mother doesn't seem to be wanting to feed them very often right now!  She will only stay with them for a short time.  I have to make her lay down and let them nurse.  Also, they nurse off of a nipple for a short time pumping it and then sucking and scurries looking for another nipple but doesn't seem to get enough from the next nipple.  Is it possible that the mother doesn't have enough milk for the three puppies?  The mother is a 5 lb yorkie.  Thank you

ANSWER: She is trying to wean them, albeit a bit early. You can let them nurse then when she gets up put them by the food and let them know what it is. You should be making a gruel of ground up or crushed SD puppy food and puppy replacement milk like Nurturall.
Let it sit until its soft then let the puppies have it. You might have to rub some in their mouths to get them to taste it.
You can do this three or four times a day-shooting for three times a day when they are totally weaned from Mom around 5-6 weeks. By 6 weeks they should be totally weaned.

The less the Mom nurses the less milk she produces and that is how she weans them. Just watch their weight and get the other food ready for them. Once they are weaned slowly wean Mom onto Science Diet Adult formula Small Bites and she will stay very healthy that way.

Congrats! You are almost done!

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Should I be feeding them this food now or wait until they are 4 wks old?

Answer
You said they were 4 weeks old in the title of this question. I figured they were by that. If they are not yet 4 weeks you should wait a few more days- but if they are moving about on their own, nursing only twice a day, then you can start them now.

However, if they are barely past 3 weeks, eyes just open and are barely walking, no. You need to wait, to weight them and supplement with puppy milk replacer if they start to lose weight. Then at four weeks you can start giving them some solid food.
So it depends how much into 4 weeks they are. It is preferable that you wait as close to 5 weeks as possible. This helps prevent food allergies later on.