Content
- Do not accept puppies younger than 2 months
- What kind of food to use?
- How often should you feed the puppy?
- Other care for the prematurely weaned dog
Breastfeeding is essential for the dog, not only because it is a source of food, but also a source of bacteria that will initiate the colonization of its digestive system and a source of antibodies. In fact, as with humans, puppies are not born with defenses, they acquire them directly from their mother's milk until their immune system begins to mature.
The essential period of breastfeeding is 4 weeks, however, breastfeeding is ideally maintained for 8 weeks, since it is not just about feeding the puppy, but also about letting the mother start the process of breastfeeding. learning, through soft bites, licks and grunts.
Sometimes, breastfeeding for 4 or 8 weeks is not possible due to several problems that may affect the mother, so in this article by PeritoAnimal we show you how it should be feeding prematurely weaned puppies.
Do not accept puppies younger than 2 months
We must use a good nutrition plan for puppies weaned prematurely when it was not possible to complete breastfeeding due to a medical problem, such as mastitis in bitches.
Therefore, this information should not be used to separate a puppy from its mother too soon., as this has very negative consequences for the dog, in addition to being deprived of the sense of belonging to a group, it may present the following problems during its first stage of growth:
- separation anxiety
- Aggressiveness
- hyperactivity
- Sucking other objects, such as cotton or fabrics
We know that the arrival of a dog at the house is a highly positive experience, but to be a responsible owner we must ensure that this is also a positive experience for the dog, so whenever we can avoid this, we should not take in a smaller puppy. that 2 months.
What kind of food to use?
For at least 4 weeks it will be essential to feed the puppy with artificial milk whose composition is the most similar to your mother's milk, for that you should go to a specialized store.
Under no circumstances can you give cow's milk, as this is very high in lactose and the puppy's stomach cannot digest it. If it is not possible to find artificial milk for puppies weaned prematurely, then you should choose the pasteurized goat's milk, whose lactose content is the most similar to the bitch's milk.
The milk must be at a warm temperature and to administer it you must use a baby bottle that you can buy at the pharmacy and specifically for premature babies, since the outflow that these bottles offer is the most suitable for a puppy with such a short lifespan.
After the first 4 weeks, you can already introduce solid food specifically for puppies, such as pâtés or grain rations. Initially must alternate with drinking milk, until progressively, after 8 weeks, the dog's food is just solid.
How often should you feed the puppy?
The first three days must be fed continuously, ie every 2 hours, both during the day and at night, after the first three days, start feeding it every 3 hours.
This feeding frequency should be maintained for the first 4 weeks, then start alternating bottle intakes with solid food administration.
Other care for the prematurely weaned dog
In addition to giving the puppy a diet as similar as possible to what his mother would offer, we must offer him certain care to keep him healthy:
- stimulate the sphincters: During the first days of life, a puppy is unable to defecate or urinate by itself, therefore, we should stimulate it by gently rubbing a cotton pad on its anus and genital region.
- Prevent hypothermia: A newborn dog is prone to hypothermia, so we should look for a heat source and keep it at a temperature between 24 and 26 degrees centigrade.
- Try to give you contact: All puppies need contact, but puppies especially. We must spend time with them and encourage them, but we must never interrupt their sleeping hours.
- healthy environment: The prematurely weaned dog's immune system is very weak, to avoid any infectious disease we must keep the dog in a suitable and completely clean environment.
