Please tell me how to wean a litter of chihuahua/mix pups?

Question

They are almost 4 weeks old. Thanks.

Answer 1

We used to start ours on food at 3 weeks old.  We would mix puppy chow with milk and let it sit until it gets soft.  When it is soft then you gather all the pups up and put them around the bowl.  I used to laugh at mine when we did this because it looked like a wheel around the bowl.  But then they start eating and they become less dependant on the mother.  You are probably noticing now that the mother really don't want them to feed on her anymore, like it is aggravating her because it is, they get little teeth and that hurts the mother to have them sucking on her.  Also, I used to take mine outside three times a day so they would get used to being outside and going to the bathroom outside, and while I had them out there I would play with them.  By 8 weeks they should be ready to leave the mother completely.  Good Luck.

Answer 2

This should help: http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?...

To make a puppy mush, we stay with the same brand of food the mother is fed, selecting the company’s dry puppy food. It might be Iams, Purina, Science Diet, Nature’s Recipe, etc.

Prepare the puppy mush by placing 2 cups of high quality dry puppy food in a blender with 12.5 oz liquid puppy milk replacer and fill the rest of the blender with hot water. This should be blenderized until the consistency of human infant cereal. (This feeds 6-8 puppies of a medium-sized breed.) The puppies should receive 3-4 meals a day of this to start. Once the puppies have checked it out, walked in it, and have eaten some, the dam can be allowed to finish it and clean the puppies off. 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 dry food.

Once they are on dry food, it may be left in with the puppies (when the dam is out of the box) or the meal times can continue. As the puppies eat more solid food, the ***** may be let away from the puppies for an even longer period of time. By the time they are 6½-7 weeks, they should be fully weaned from the dam's milk, eating dry food, and drinking water.

If the weaning is not rushed, the ***** will naturally start decreasing milk production as the puppies increase their intake of solid food. As the puppies begin eating the puppy mush at 4 weeks of age, start changing the *****'s diet back to adult food to also help her decrease milk production. Start by replacing 1/4 of her puppy food with adult food. Keep increasing the adult food and decreasing the puppy food until by the 8th week postpartum, she is eating only adult food. During the last week of weaning, the dam's food consumption should be less than 50% above the maintenance levels and declining toward maintenance levels.

I hope this helps!!

Answer 3

Rolled-up newspaper should do fine....

Answer 4

Many people with a new litter of puppies are unsure of how to start the weaning process. In fact, some do not even really understand what weaning means or implies. Weaning refers to the process of the puppies beginning to eat food other than mothers' milk or milk formula. There is no magic trick in weaning puppies; most do this naturally.

A female dog is capable of supplying milk to her offspring for several months. In the wild, pups will be born in the spring and may (in some situations) still be nursing from their mother as the fall season arrives. They will definitely be taking food from other sources, but the mother will still be producing milk. The signal for the mammary glands to continue to produce milk is nursing or manipulation of the glands. Following whelping, if someone massages the mammary glands, they will continue to produce milk, even if the pups are taken away.

In today’s world, weaning is not done to aid the mother. Rather, it is done because puppies generally make their way to their new home at about seven weeks of age, and since their mother is not going with them, the pups need to have their gastrointestinal tracts accustomed to eating commercially prepared foods. In most kennels, puppies get the first taste of food other than Mom’s milk at about 3½ weeks of age. This may seem early to you, but after working with numerous breeders and seeing many litters raised in our own homes, we can guarantee that the puppies of any breed can take food on their own at this age. To make a puppy mush, we stay with the same brand of food the mother is fed, selecting the company’s dry puppy food. It might be Iams, Purina, Science Diet, Nature’s Recipe, etc.

Answer 5

Leave it up to the mother.Start your puppies on a soft soaked puppy food.Then in about a week or two she will start wanting to get away from them,she should have a way to get away from them such as a board that keeps them in but she can jump to get out.She will start staying away for longer and longer periods of time.You take over the feeding of the pups and her milk will start to dry up.Once she is not nursing she can come back into heat so be careful of having her around male dogs.After 8 to nine weeks of age she should be ready to spade if that's some thing you want to do.Tilks Mom