I remember the first time the hooligan had a bath in their puppy gruel 2009 hooligans first puppies gruel
I have not thought of any form of gruel but Tikva is not only now lapping up milk substitute as well as from a bottle, but will eat little bits of chewed up [by me] raw meat and fish. Tiny bits though. She was not keen on the finely chopped up stuff so I chewed it for her. Yuck. She also has discovered cottage cheese, bio yoghurt and the soft cheese triangles my neighbour offered her yesterday. Yes she was far too young and there is no guarantee she will make it, but so far she is doing her best, as am I. I do not know what else I can do for her.
My mother used to wean her puppies on baby cereal or fine porridge, and when I first had Chloe at 6 weeks old I fed her on a sloppy mixture of cooked. mince and pureed veggies
In 'the good ole days' pups were also given scrambled eggs, sloppy weetabix etc. Times change, but pups still seemed to thrive. Even now, a lot of vets still recommend the above for convalescing dogs so it can't be all bad
I think in " the good old days" we did not have the level of knowledge on nutrition as we do now, breeders ( and owners ) fed weetabix , eggs and anything sloppy , but we now have a better knowledge of the correct nutrients pups and dogs need, as well as easy access to food food. weetabix and such has no nutritional value for a growing pup, and thankfully most good breeders will now wean their pups on the correct diet for their age. Today we have the advantage of knowing about diet and the availability of good food and the need to feed well for healthy growth.
Unfortunately many owners, don't know about diet. You'd be surprised what some dog owners here feed their dogs on! Scraps of bread, left overs from a meal, cooked bones and the cheapest kibble in the supermarket. Commercial dog food producers offer huge discounts to vets to promote their brand, and to breeders to feed their dogs which means that a puppy or dog are not necessarily receiving the best diet.
I agree with the gruel idea and recommend it completely. I feel it gives any young critter the added vitamins and calories to thrive. With a litter of kittens the recipe was basically a quarter bowl of cooked human baby oatmeal or rice cereal, then thin it down to soupy mush with milk or milk substitute, maybe a dash of broth or liquid vitamin if you wish...pour in a shallow dish and have your camera ready!!!
Tikva is now eating food from a jar of Gerber mixed vegetables. Tiny teaspoons at a time which she seems to like. All they had at the macolet. She is lapping her puppy substitute food from a saucer, is eating some raw meat/fish [as long as I chew it up for her, yuck] and will be sampling egg tomorrow. Maybe. She is happy and thriving [and very noisy], pees and poos on a puppy pad to order, so what else I should be doing I do not know. She eats, she sleeps, she pees, she sleeps, she explored everywhere and shrieks shen she thinks she is lose - so I do not think I am doing anything wrong. Yes, she could die in the night, but then again so could I.
I now have mixed grain cereal powder to mix with her milk, plus a pack of rice powder cereal. Both are supposedly enriched with vitamins and minerals. Both for human babies. As Tikva seems to prefer food a bit more solid than her puppy milk supplement, I will offer her what I have and give it if she likes it - just gave her some rice powder mixed with her puppy milk substute and apart from walking in it she decided it was FOOD. She then found her way to the nearest puppy pad and did both p&p. [I meant "lost" and not "lose" in my last post - she sort of waddles/staggers/runs/whatever around, gets lost somewhere in my bungalow and then screams to be rescued - far better than being in a tiny closed room or then just being put in the yard outside. Too much weird about that situation. Tikva has been with me for 6 days now. Too young or not she is still alive and appears to be thriving. Who knows what the future will bring.
Waddle was not the word I meant but my English it is spent She then did really show me up in the macolet our little shop On my lap and in full view opened her mouth and out did spew The food she'd nomnomed slightly earlier talk about a curtain raiser
Definitely too much eaten and since out [and she did not gag, just opened her mouth and it overflowed, albeit an hour or so later] she has slept, had a run around the bungalow, gotten lost/stuck in a few places, screeched to be rescued and is now back on my lap, sleeping again. But has not yet had any more food. She is definitely not dehydrated - she has not asked for more food - I think she knows she had eaten too much. Or something. But I could really do without be woken up at 4.30am when she wants to pee.
Puppies are like babies they wake up in the early hours of the morning, then sleep during day so they can wake up again at silly o'clock hours in the morning xxx
Well, this one woke me by climbing over my head and biting my nose. Yesterday she woke me because somehow she fell off the bed and was wandering screeching for me. Tonight she is going to stay in her crate however much noise she makes. I mean if she can sleep in her bed in the salon, or her crate in my bedroom if I want to go to the macolet without her, why the screeching at night? Possibly she does not like the dark? Looking back X years the puppies I hand-reared slept in a box by my bed as crates did not exist then. But then they were newborns or one four-day-old and all went to sleep as soon as they were fed, tummies tickled/rubbed for stimulation until they peed/pood, until they woke up hungry. Tikva can, and does, pee and poo without needing stimulation and she can usually find the nearest puppy pad but has never used the one in her crate, nor has she peed in my bed. There is still a chance that she will not make it, but she had zero chance before I brought her home. And oh how I would have loved another couple of weeks for her to stay with her dam and litter mates. But it was not to be and six days later she is still flourishing. Oh, and the word I forgot was scuttle. Not waddle. She scuttles around at the speed of light.
I know it was wrong, I know she was too young, but I did not know the whole story as it is still being kept in the family and will probably never be known. Nor will I ever know why they wanted the puppy to be re-homed so quickly when I wanted her in another 2-3 weeks. Tikva - "hope" will, hopefully, survive. And if she does not nobody will have the right that it was my fault because I am doing everything I can for her.
