When Puppies Start To Wean, That's When You Can Spot The First Sign Of Trouble
If you are lucky enough to witness the birth of a litter of puppies, you know what a marvel it is. Those first eight weeks are when the puppies start to develop and any problems can be identified.
Online, March 22, 2011 (Newswire.com) - The mother dog usually takes good care of her pups for the first 8 weeks of life. Sometimes humans intervene with hearth breaking consequences.
A breeder disposed of an 8 week year old puppy when they found out that the dog was deaf. What a fantastic turn of events when a deaf couple adopted Alice the Springer spaniel and taught her sign language! Deaf Couple Teach Deaf Dog Sign Laungage
If you're lucky enough to be at the birth of a litter of puppies it is quite something to experience. Nature ensures that the mom's instincts click in as the puppies are dependent for 100% of their essential needs for survival. Once your puppies have been licked clean and have gotten rid of all of the afterbirth in their airways, the mother will begin to feed her puppies and take care of all their other needs.
For about the first two weeks your puppies will be very uncoordinated and unable to see and move around easily because their eyes will still be closed. To help mom do her job the best that she can, make sure that her bed and surrounding area where the puppies are is safe and secure and cleaned daily. If your puppies are born premature, and mom needs some added help feeding her puppies, you may have to use a bottle to avoid dehydration. This can happen really quickly so make sure your puppies are getting enough to drink.
If all is running as scheduled, after about four weeks until around eight weeks, the mother will naturally begin to wean her puppies and that's the time when you will need to step in and supply food and water as they make the switch from mom's milk to solid food and water. Check with your vet to get help choosing the best food. Puppies have very sharp, but soft teeth so wet food is usually the way to go and then slowly switch over to dry, or a mix of both.
Keep a clean, fresh supply of water in a shallow bowl available for your puppies so that they can learn to lap up the water instead of suckling it from their mother's nipple. This will take some time to master, but they will still have mom there to supply her milk to make sure dehydration doesn't happen. Since your puppies will be eating and drinking more, they'll be going to the bathroom a lot more too and sometimes because they're still learning how to use their limbs and keep their balance they may go to the bathroom in their food/water. If this happens, make you clean it up right away to make sure your puppies stay healthy. Also keeping the water in a shallow bowl will help avoid drowning.
It's something you might not think about happening, but your puppy's heads are still quite heavy for their newly developing neck muscles and it takes a lot of effort to keep their head up. They tire easily so it's a good idea to keep the bedding area in an open environment where you are around to make sure everyone stays safe.
After around the eighth week your puppies should be successfully weaned from their mom and having fun exploring with their new found coordination and mobility. They are now ready to leave the safety and security of their mom and find homes of their own. When choosing a new home for your puppies, try to find the best match possible by educating the potential owners of the many jobs that they will be responsible for when caring for a newly weaned puppy.
When Is The Best Time To Get A New Puppy?
Food and health care are at the top of the list since the puppies mom will no longer be around, but also having the time, love and patience to devote to a new puppy will help make a successful match for everyone.
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