Puppies can begin to eat dry food moistened into a mush at about 3 to 4 weeks. Offer it once or twice a day. Let them play around with it. By 6 weeks they should be able to eat the puppy food with little or no moisture added. At 8 weeks they should be eating it without trouble. If you are selling them at this point, you don't need to wean them - they will be weaned when they leave. If you are intending to keep them, simply separate them from Mom for a week or so until she stops lactating.
2006-08-16 08:19:22
·
answer #1
·
answered by Okkieneko 4
·
0⤊
0⤋
Well, unless all of the puppies' new owners will be willing to learn and use B.A.R.F., I would go with a high quality puppy food... (Such as Nutro.) And someone else will have to give you advice on weaning *to* BARF, if that's what you are going to do... I have no experience with it, though I have read quite a bit about it.
There are different methods to weaning, and this is only one... Others will have suggestions as well. Myself, I usually start the puppies with a dish of puppy formula early on (four weeks old) to get them used to eating out of a dish. They are still nursing from mom at this point, but it gets them used to it and makes the transition easier for them, in my opinion.
Then, at almost 5 weeks, I will add in a bit of puppy food, let it soak well, and give them a thicker and thicker "mush" every day until they can eat it with little or no moisture at all. I do this twice a day, or more for anyone that is lagging behind or has trouble eating from the dish. They will nurse less and less frequently until mom finally starts running away from them and their little puppy teeth. ;) This has worked well for my puppies so far.
2006-08-16 08:29:39
·
answer #2
·
answered by doldaggabuzzbuzz 3
·
0⤊
0⤋
Good ideas on here about the wet puppy chow. But Mom, the female dog, should wean them when they're about 6 weeks old. She'll begin the weaning when her milk starts drying up. You don't have to do a thing other than enjoy the new puppys and offer them softened puppy chow.
2006-08-16 08:28:32
·
answer #3
·
answered by Lucianna 6
·
1⤊
0⤋
Since many of your pups will not be eating BARF when they go to new homes I would get some high quality puppy food.
Wellness or Merrick or Innova or Chicken Soup for the Dog Lover's Soul and get them started on that.
My last litter was years ago and at 4 weeks they were starting to nibble at Moms food so I put a pan of moist puppy food down three times per day and let them eat all they wanted for about 20 minutes.
I also left and pan of dry puppy food down all the time and let them free eat when they wanted.
By 6 weeks they were not really nursing anymore. And they ate when ever they were hungry but also got the moist food until they wnet to new homes.
2006-08-16 09:25:09
·
answer #4
·
answered by tlctreecare 7
·
0⤊
0⤋
Obviously, let Mom start weaning them.
I would start out with juiced veggies & fruit and the pulp, with a little ground turkey or beef mixed into jump start them to solids. If you're not into creating your own veggie meals, Billinghurst's frozen patties are awesome. They are much more expensive than making it yourself, but they are complete and very easy - just defrost.
Once they have little/no problem with that, just start substituting chicken drumsticks, beef ribs, etc, every other meal (but the smaller pieces appropriate too the puppies size.) Once they're about 8 weeks old, they should be able to just do two meals a week of fruit & veg and the rest meaty bones or organ meat (I only do organ once a week).
I love the diet and think my dogs are so much healthier for it.
2006-08-16 09:26:15
·
answer #5
·
answered by gsdmommy 3
·
0⤊
0⤋
Actually, weaning a young canine is a process. You need to start with an eyedropper containing only milk. Then, add small pieces of moist food into the eyedropper (still containing milk) and so on. Finally, he will get to the stage where you can use wet dogfood in a bowl, then dry. Trust me, I had a dog that this process worked on.
2006-08-16 08:27:17
·
answer #6
·
answered by kitty 2
·
0⤊
0⤋
I do not know what the B.A.R.F. diet is but puppies need puppy chow. So start off by buying a bag of that. Then wet it down with water so that it gets soft. Put the puppies by the plate... maybe even put some on your finger and hold it up to their mouths. They should be intrested.
2006-08-16 08:17:36
·
answer #7
·
answered by Kamunyak 5
·
0⤊
1⤋
do NOT feed your puppies on the BARF diet, go get some good quality puppy food (kibble) and canned mix it together with warm water and some puppy milk replacer until it's mushy and let them at it.
2006-08-16 08:44:32
·
answer #8
·
answered by k 3
·
0⤊
1⤋
let mother dog do that talk to trainers, vets and groomers learn how to train, exercise and socialize let in live in house with family
2016-03-16 23:00:04
·
answer #9
·
answered by Anonymous
·
0⤊
0⤋
huh
2006-08-16 08:22:55
·
answer #10
·
answered by Khadijah 4
·
0⤊
2⤋