3 wk old puppies constipated

Question
We have bottle feed 2 puppies since birth and started to give them baby rice cereal with goat milk and find that they are now getting constipated.  What would you recommend that we add to the formula to have the bowls move?  Can we give them caro syrup in a little water or add it to the milk?  If so how much for little 3 lbs. pups?
Thanks.
Kath

Answer
Hi Kath,

It's not unusual for the change to a weaning diet to cause constipation in puppies.

Are you massaging their genital area and rectum several times a day, or only every so often? If their mom was with them, she would be washing them and licking them many times during the day. Be sure you are doing lots of this. Use a warm moist wash cloth or or cotton ball to stimulate the pup, and to help digestion.

If their tummies are not hard or distended, and they seem comfortable, maybe they aren't really constipated as much as you think they are. They just may not have much waste material because of the liquid diet.

If you're sure the puppies are really constipated, you can either add about 1/2 a teaspoon of 100% canned pumpkin (not sweetened pie mix) OR a teeny tiny spoonful of vegetable oil, OR a teaspoon of blackstrap molasses into the milk/rice mixture to help keep them regular.
Keep an eye on poo, if it gets loose back off of the whichever additive you've chosen, if seems too solid give a little more. Better to go slowly, than to over do this.

An excellent weaning diet can be made easily by placing 2 cups of high quality dry puppy food in a blender with 12.5 oz liquid puppy milk replacer, or the goat milk you've been using. Add a cup of hot water. This should be blenderized until the consistency of human infant cereal.
Each week, increase the amount of food, decrease the amount of the milk replacer and water that is added, and the time of blenderizing, so by 7 weeks, the puppies are eating solid dry food.

Contact your vet if this the constipation doesn't respond to your best efforts.

Best of luck,
Patti