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Weaning Pups on Raw
At about 3 weeks,
we offer our pups a "Gruel" once a day. This consists
of goats milk, baby cereal (like for human babies), egg yolk, organic
yogurt, honey and vitamin C (crystals). We let the pups lick at
this and in just one or two feedings, they are eating with great gusto.
At 4 weeks, we add
human baby food beef, lamb and chicken (yes, again, human baby food),
and also baby food veggies which are wonderful since they're already
pureed. They are offered this twice daily, assuming they are
still nursing also.
By 5 weeks, we
start adding canned salmon and ground whole chicken or turkey in
place of the baby food, plus a larger variety of real fruits and
veggies as well as cottage cheese and apple cider vinegar. We
replace the baby cereal with a 12 grain mixture. At this point,
mom is sometimes starting to want to wean the pups, so the frequency
of feeding is based on her willingness to allow them to nurse.
At 6 weeks, we
introduce a greater variety of meats, such as ground Beef, Lamb,
Chicken, Rabbit and turkey , as well as some chicken or turkey
necks. At this age, they usually will eat the meat off the
bones, but are not be able to eat whole chicken backs or turkey necks
until about 7 weeks.
At 7 weeks, the
pups are eating just as our adult dogs would. Mom has usually
weaned them by now so they are offered four meals per day.
A Few Notes:
We always allow
mom to nurse pups as long as she is willing. We feel that
mother's milk is the ideal diet for a growing puppy and never
"force wean".
We try to
introduce new foods to the pups one at a time to ensure that they
don't encounter digestive problems. It also helps up to
pinpoint foods that the pups don't like
If a pup will be
fed kibble when it goes to its' new home, we recommend that the owner
ship us a bag of what they'll be feeding so that we can incorporate
it into that pup's diet. This is to avoid any additional stress
when they arrive at their new home. We also send each pup home
with some of our food, so that the changeover is not so dramatic.
We find that our
pups that are fed a raw diet grow more proportionately, are more
"together" at a younger age ie. better motor skills, and
are extremely food motivated adults, making training that much easier.
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