nursing a pitbull puppy

Question
I have just received my first puppy. I have no idea what to do. My husband and I are trying to feed him from a bottle, he don't seem to know how to suck or doesn't want to. So I pore his milk on a plate and he laps. I was told that he should be sucking from a bottle.I am not sure or his age. He has no teeth yet. He does have pretty long nails. He likes to keep his face under a blanket and seems to shake a lot. As if cold.How often should we be feeding him? (milk replacement?) Is the shaking normal? Will he grow up to bee aggressive? Help us please. we have fallen in love with this cute guy.

Answer
Hi. It sounds like your puppy is way to young to be at a new home away from his mom. You can keep trying with the bottle to get him to take to it. Some will, some won't. If he still refuses to bottle feed, you may have to end up tube feeding him. I'd take him in to the vet to make sure that he's ok, doesn't have something wrong with him making him not able to nurse. I'd also ask about tube feeding if the vet thinks he needs it, let him show you how to do it. Take a pair of human fingernail clippers, and gently clip just the tips off of his nails. Best time to do this is when he's asleep. If he's this young, then he's going to need extra heat. You can take an empty 2 liter bottle and fill it with warm water, wrap it in a towel and place it where ever the puppy is kept. You ca also fill a tube sock up with rice and microwave it. The sock thing will hold heat longer. That may be why he's shaking. Either way, I'd let the vet have a look at him just to be on the safe side. If you get his shots and socialize him really well to people and other animals, then he may not be aggressive. I'd also think about obedience classes for him. When a dog is taken away from his mom and littermates too soon, it can cause problems with the dog later on, they often don't know how to act like a dog around other dogs, and may even be other dog aggressive. So, you'll just to have work really hard with him to make sure that doesn't happen. Good luck!