How to Wean a litter of puppies

 

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     When a puppy has matured enough, it comes time to wean them off their mother’s milk. The mother dog instinctively looks after her puppies after giving birth; they are completely reliant on her for food and protection. After a few weeks, the pups must learn to consume solid food and become less reliant on their mother. 

    When should you start weaning your puppy? When a puppy is approximately three weeks old, you should begin weaning them. The weaning process can continue until the pup is about seven or eight weeks of age. 

The Weaning Process

    It’s important to wean pups slowly over a few weeks. Start by having the pups spend a few hours away from their mother every day. While they’re away from their mother, feed the pups out of a pan, this helps condition them to eat independently without their mother. 

Feeding

     With time, slowly increase how much you feed the pups, as well as the amount of time they’re spending away from their mother. During this time, it’s advised not to separate the pups from each other. Being away from their mother can be difficult enough, but being taken away from their littermates can potentially scare the pups. Start with feeding them wet food and then slowly incorporating a mix of wet and dry food.

Socialization

   First and foremost, puppies learn social behavior from their mother. Weaning puppies gives them the chance to learn social behavior from other sources and develop their behavior by learning from their surroundings. Proper socialization affects your puppy’s development and helps avoid behavioral issues in their adult stage. 

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What to Feed Your Pup

    While it’s always important to give your dogs a healthy, balanced diet, it’s necessary for the food you feed them to taste good when you’re weaning a pup. The food you give your puppy while weaning them should be so appetizing that they start to prefer it to their mother’s milk. Experts recommend high-quality puppy food that has been custom-made to suit their tastes and needs. You can also mix solid food with canine milk replacement, or warm water, to make it soft and digestible for pups. Over time, increase the amount of solid food your pup is eating and the consistency of the food. As always, be sure to provide your pup with clean drinking water as well. 

Reunite The Pups With Their Mother

    When the pup is done eating, please return them to their mother and let her lick them clean; this step helps normalize eating alone for the pups and adjust to the weaning process while still having the familiar comfort of their mother for the time being. 

In Conclusion

    If you’re adopting a puppy, make sure they’re old enough to separate from their mother and that they’ve been properly weaned. This is usually by 8 weeks old. 

Here’s an article about weaning puppies that might help.

 

Here’s a video about caring for your new puppy: