The Weaning Of A Puppy

Most puppies, once their eyes open will start to wonder around, and eventually will find their mother's food dish. Most owners will allow their puppies to eat from their mother's feeding dish once they are able to. Although, this is a double edged sword, on one hand it is good, as it teaches them to learn by watching their mother, how to eat solid foods. However, on the other hand it causes several problems.

First, the pup's mother is not consuming the same diet as her puppies should be consuming. Second, most mothers will often disagree with her pups eating from her feeding bowl, and could growl and snap at them as they try to eat from her bowl. This can actually cause a puppy to think eating from a bowl is a bad thing, and this is not what you want. And finally, adult feeding bowls are seldom the right size for tiny puppies.

If a puppy starts to eat from his mothers dish at about three to five weeks, he should be weaned within 6 to 8 weeks. However, if the puppy has been abandoned or orphaned and has been hand-fed, he will probably have to be hand trained to eat solid foods. This also goes for any puppy that has been abruptly taken from his mother within six to seven weeks and has had little to no solid food to eat, he will also probably need to be taught how to eat solid foods by hand.

You can look at teaching a puppy to eat solid foods as a chore or a fun experience. Watching a young puppy learn to eat can be a humorous experience. However, to some, it could also seem to be a waste of time, and consider it the most frustrating step in raising a puppy. However, by taking the time, and hand training each puppy, you are ensuring that no puppy will fall behind nutritionally.

Once you start to train the puppies, make sure you do it on an individual basis, not to be disturbed by their mother, brothers, or sisters. You will need to place the puppy in front of the bowl of food, making sure it is able to reach the food easily, and then you need to push his muzzle into the food, if he doesn't willingly do it himself.

You will more than likely have to do this several times, most pups will pull away and fuss until he realizes that it is something to eat. He will probably play around with it for a bit, lapping up a little to begin with, although a lot of puppies will get the hang of it almost instantly. Some will act like it is their first meal in a long time and lap it up like there is no tomorrow, and some will turn their heads and try to get away from it, or try to bath in it .

Once the puppy seems to be satisfied, put him back with the other puppies, after you dry him off, and grab another to have his turn.

You will need to do it this way until all puppies have had their turn at the feeding bowl.
You may want to put one that didn't take to it, or is just a slow learner to the feed bowl, with one that has really taken to eating from the bowl, as puppies learn by example.