Need recipe for "puppy gruel" please!

[Rumpley]

We've taken in 4 VERY young pups, perhaps 2 are maybe 2-3 weeks, and the other two are perhaps 5 weeks TOPS! Mother was hit by a car, dead on the side of the road, so the "owners" were giving the pups away free in a cardboard box for anyone who wanted one.

Everyone, including the vets, has told me a different thing to be feeding these dogs: cooked chicken and rice, no cooked chicken, vet puppy formula, no formula if they'll eat canned, feed good quality puppy canned food. I have no clue what to do!!!!! :wallbang:

All concurred that feeding wet kibble is not good for dogs this young and can hurt their digestion system.

Then another long term rescue person said make a mix of cooked rice pablum and goat's milk. HELP!!!

I thought I read about some sort of gruel that young pups could eat? Anyone have any ideas??????

[BabyReba]

oh, poor puppies!

i have never had to raise puppies that young, but i know people who have who say they will mix goat's milk (NOT cow milk) with baby cereal for a couple of days to start the pups off before adding any real dog food. if you can't get goat's milk, you can try evaporated milk in a can or maybe a puppy formula.

the cereal is supposed to kind of prime the digestive system before you start them on "real" dog food.

you might try PM'ing Hartagold on this. since she's a breeder, she's probably got some puppy gruel recipes up her sleeve. if you can't find her here, i think she might moderate one of the bully boards at

www.purebredpuppy.com

at least i think that's where i've seen her before.

good luck, i hope the pups do OK!

[Erika]

Get some Esiblac asap!! mix this with some dry puppy kibble and mash it up real well. Eukanuba also makes a weaning formula that is in a powder, but I dont have any experience with this. Those 2-3 week pups should only BARELY be starting to wean off mom. They still need formula.

good luck with the babies!!

[barbponys]

The 5 week old pups can eat kibble soaked in buttermilk or goats milk. Goats milk is better, fat content is more like moms and they tolerate it better. Canned can be added in to sweeten the mix. No raw since their system is very suseptible to nasties, mom and dad predigesting it killed most harmful stuff. 10-11 weeks is really the soonest they can start digesting it on their own.

The 2-3 week olds???? I would be doing Esbalac for the next week to 10 days and then start offering good quality canned mixed with goats milk to get them on solids. Dry food is too hard for them to digest until they are 5 or 6 weeks old. Then you can do as you did with the other 5 weekers. I'm of the opinion that soaking the dry for the first week or so is better for their digestion since it's really hard on them till they are a bit older.

[gypsydog]

As far as the young ones I cant help you but we got our Venus at 5 weeks so she wouldnt get a bullet and she ate regular old dry kibble just fine. Nothing added at all.

[Leslie H]

I may be misinterpreting, but if they're from the same litter, they cannot be different ages. The younger appearing puppies would be ones that haven't thrived. Esbilac is pricey, but I would be using it to make puppy mush. I've always made mush w/esbilac, high quality kibble soaked and warm. However, at that age (2-3weeks) it's just been to supplement, not replace mom. Some bitches will wean as early as 3-4 weeks, pups have sharp teeth by then. Make sure any kibble is soft, I've heard of young pups wolfing down dry kibble and choking. If any pup is really 2-3 weeks, I'd just be bottle feeding esbilac every 3-4 hours.

[SKoth]

Rumpley-
Everyone will definitely have there own opinion about what to feed puppies. I doubt that one is truly better than the other. When my Mal was weaning I found this website to be a great resource. CHECK IT OUT:

http://www.lowchensaustralia.com/Breeding.htm

[Rumpley]

Thanks for the help everybody!
We're sticking with formula for the younger two, and for the older two, are going to try to go goat's milk/softened kibble in about a week, once they've had a chance to see the vet etc.

We tried the canned food on the older ones (wasn't pretty....) so going back to formula..

[shella677]

Leslie- I too was wondering about the ages of the pups. :roll: