The puppy is an amazing little friend, a full member of the family, and the relationship requires an appropriate one. If your dog brought puppies or you took a very small puppy to your family, sooner or later the question will arise when, how, how and in what quantity it can be fed.
General information
It is clear that the best food for a small dog, as well as for a small human baby, is mother's milk. It is rich not only in all the necessary substances, minerals, fats and carbohydrates, it is rich in antibodies - maternal immunity helps protect offspring from dangerous diseases and numerous threats of the big world. By the age of 2 months, they do not need breast milk.
This does not mean at all that you need to wait until the puppies themselves want to eat something else, since milk to growing offspring will quickly cease to be enough. And therefore, from the third week after birth, the puppy is put on complementary foods.
To understand what the very first lure should be like, one must take into account the imperfection of the lipid metabolism of puppies and the fat content of the milk of a bitch. Usually it is in the range of 7 to 10%, and these products that you will offer as food for your pets should be just such fat content. Only if this rule is observed will the puppy not have any health problems.
Another rule of the first feeding says that you should not impose food on the puppies from the outside, if they sleep almost all the time and gain weight normally. Only when it is obvious that the puppies are undernourished, they are restless, whine, sleep little, it is worth considering the introduction of supplementary feeding.
How to feed up to 1 month?
There are special blends that mimic the composition of the milk of bitches.If the mother cannot feed the puppies or there is pathologically insufficient milk, it is worth introducing, first, the feeding of such a mixture from a bottle. Such mixtures are quite expensive, not everyone can afford them, and therefore the question arises whether it is possible to choose something else.
Veterinarians consider goat milk to be a worthy substitute and first supplement. The first time it needs to be slightly diluted with water, then you can give whole, and after a few days you can add one raw yolk of a quail or chicken egg to the milk.
The earliest age of the beginning of the first feeding is 2-3 weeks from birth. Puppy solid food should be taught from 1 month.
Nutrition after 1 month
The first solid food for a baby puppy should be cottage cheese, the fat content of which does not exceed 9%. It is useful to add a raw egg to it, or rather, the yolk. It is important not to get too excited with the number of eggs - give no more than 1 egg per 200 grams of the total daily amount of food. Also, from a month you can offer the puppy beef and veal - boiled, mashed in minced puree.
Since five weeks, puppies are already quite autonomous, many breeders at this age give puppies into the wrong hands, and someone gets dogs at that age. Now meat is very important for a pet - protein is necessary for muscle and tissue growth. Other varieties can be added to veal and beef, but a large amount of animal fat should be avoided, and therefore it is not worth experimenting with pork, and fat should be removed from chicken. You can gradually start giving raw minced meat. Milk is superseded by dairy products, for example, low-fat kefir or fermented baked milk.
If you plan to feed the puppy later with dry food, now you can take its granules and lightly soak with milk or water - he can’t bite them yet. Gradually, by the age of two months, the baby will begin to eat “drying” without significant difficulties.
Meals in 1.5-2 months
A month and a half is the first serious age at which feeding a puppy turns into an independent and nutritious diet. It is important to feed the pet according to the scheme up to 4-5 times a day, but the amount of food at each meal should not be large - the baby’s stomach, liver, pancreas and intestines are not yet ready for serious stress.
In a month and a half, raw fish can be introduced into the pet's diet. But first, suggest it is the same, but boiled.
Make sure that the puppy does not choke on the bones, give the fillet, and the bones of the fish can be used in nutrition in a crushed form - like bone meal for adding to cottage cheese, porridge.
Closer to 7 weeks of age, the puppy can begin to give vegetables and fruits. The first foods for feeding are apples and carrots, lettuce, fresh cucumbers, zucchini and pumpkin. Plant fiber should account for about 35% of the total diet of the dog. Fruits and vegetables are given peeled, carefully chopped, if the dog refuses to eat them, add them to porridge or minced meat.
At 7 weeks, the puppy should receive beef bones - they, like fish, should be grinded, and joints and veins can be gnawed as a toy and as an excellent teether for milk teeth.
What to feed from 2 months?
At two months, the puppy's digestion and immunity are already strong enough to expand the diet. From this time, subproducts are acceptable - the liver, the lung. But with such products you need to be very careful. Chicken necks are easier to swallow, and therefore the puppy may not even chew them, but he will nibble the chicken backs. A scar is permissible, but in small quantities.
From two months, reduce the feeding schedule to 3-4 per day, however, the portions should become larger. The daily volume of food is almost equal to the volume that is laid on an adult dog of a given size and breed. Male puppies begin to eat a little more than female puppies.
To make digestion softer and more delicate, chopped greens can be added to food from this age. Avoid greens with a pungent smell, such as cilantro.From three months, the puppy switches to a full-fledged adult diet.
Useful Tips
In order for the dog to grow healthy, it is imperative to teach the puppy to eat fresh vegetables and fruits. If this is not done in a favorable period of childhood, an adult dog will be difficult to teach to eat apples or carrots, and vegetable protein and fiber, like vitamins, are very necessary for a pet of any age, gender and breed.
Any product that you introduce into your puppy's diet should be started with a small amount. Do not introduce more than one new product per day, so that in case of an inadequate reaction to it, you can easily understand what exactly the puppy does not digest or what it is allergic to.
Do not think that allergies are a purely human problem. The immunity of a dog works on a similar principle and can perceive a new substance as an antigen. An allergy in a dog is manifested by itching - the puppy begins to itch, worry, the eyes may water, possibly a liquid that is separable from the nasal passages. Paying attention to such symptoms, stop giving the dubious product and return to it after a couple of weeks - dogs, like human children, may well outgrow children's allergies on their own, and in the future they will not have problems with food.
To protect the puppy's weak digestive system, you need to give complementary foods in a warm, but not hot form. Cold food is also much worse absorbed and requires greater energy consumption of the body and enzymes.
If you decide to feed your dog with natural food, be sure to consult your veterinarian about which vitamins can be given additionally. Even with correctly and correctly formulated complementary foods, it is difficult to provide a pet with all the necessary elements and substances.
If you feed with dry food, there is no need for additional vitamin preparations, since an overdose can lead to hypervitaminosis, no less dangerous than a deficiency of vitamins for a growing animal organism.
On the first feeding of 3-week-old puppies of the yokshire terrier, see further.
