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Step 1
Around the age of 2 weeks, you will be able to feel their teeth under the gum. Between the age of 2-3 weeks is the time to start introducing food to the puppies. Even though they will cut teeth in just a few days, they will still have to learn to chew and to eat. It is a good idea to start them off on some formula. Do not use regular milk. That will give them diarrhea. This could be fatal in a very young puppy. Instead, buy something like Embolic or get the canned milk from the vet. Both of these are very expensive. I made my own formula for my puppy with Carnation Evaporated Milk. I got the recipe from the Humane Society and this is the least expensive.
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Step 2
Formula Recipe:
1 Can of Evaporated Milk
1 Can of Water
1 Egg Yolk
1 Tablespoon Corn syrup (Light or Dark)
Put all of this in a pot and mix well. Make sure to mix the egg yolk in really well. Cook on medium to medium high heat. Just before you reach the boiling point remove and let cool. After the formula has cooled, place in jars and store in the refrigerator. Do not make any more than what you will use in a couple of days. When you get ready to feed the puppy, put the milk in the microwave and warm for about 20 seconds. You want this to be warm but not hot. Pour about 2 ounces in a bowl and set the puppy in front of the bowl. You may have to stick your finger in the milk and rub it on the puppy's mouth. Once they get a taste of it they will start eating.
After they have been drinking the formula for a couple of days, add some food in the milk. Take some dry puppy food and put it in a blender and grind until it is almost a powder.( This dry powder you can store in a sealed container and have on hand). Mix about 2 teaspoons in with the milk and let it set until it is very soft, like a mush. Pour this in a bowl and do the same thing, rub some on their mouth. They may not like this at first. My puppy did not, so for a couple of days I gave her some cream of chicken soup and plain white rice mixed together with some milk poured in with it. She liked that and I slowly switched her over to the milk and powder.
Feed 3-4 times a day. Gradually work in larger pieces of the dry dog food but let it soak in the milk so it will soften. At 5-6 weeks old, they are now big enough to eat solid dry dog food and you can start weaning them off of the formula that you make. -
Step 3
If for some reason the Mother dog cannot nurse the puppies, you can use the formula to feed them. Do not add the puppy dry food, just the milk. You would need to get a puppy nursing bottle and feed them 1 ounce of formula every 2 hours around the clock for the first 2 weeks. Sometimes the Mother will not have enough milk for all of her puppies. The way that you can tell if a puppy is not getting enough to eat is to weigh them 2 or 3 times a day to see if there is an increase or decrease in their weight. It is hard to tell by just looking at them. Puppies will also cry if they are not getting enough to eat. If your dog has puppies and you think some of them are not getting enough to eat, remove the puppies that appear to be getting most of the milk and let the others nurse. Wait about an hour and remove those puppies and replace with the first group you removed. If at all possible, try to let all the pupppies nurse from the mother instead of you trying to feed newborns because this is a very time consuming job.
