weaning

Question
How do you wean a three week old puppy? The mother is not around to wean it traditionally and we are trying to learn to feed and train it now? Any suggestions?

Answer
Hello Brandy,

At this age you can normally start introducing puppy food and a bowl of milk.  The pup may still want to suck so it is up to you if you want to get a bottle for the pup to continue feeding some milk, but try to discourage too much bottle feeding as that is what the natural mother would start doing at this age.

Make sure and show the pup where his food dishes are and keep your feeding place familiar to him.  Stick his nose right up to the food so he smells it.  You should also keep a bowl of water available to him and gradually start eliminating the milk altogether in the next few months.  You can keep puppy food available to him all day long and he will eat as he's hungry.  At 8 months of age or so, you can start buying adult dog food and start cutting him back.

If you're having trouble, contact your vet and also read the back of the dog food packages for more information on feeding and weaning puppies.

Ann Jordan
Border Collie Coach