When to start puppies on 'real' food? (PICS post #13)

[shelleyd2008]

Title says it all, they are about 3 weeks old now.
Usually the moms are outside in their doghouses with their babies, we keep their food bowls inside their houses. So the babies just start on their own. But this dog and her babies are inside, so the babies are confined to a box (until they figure out how to climb out of it). The babies are in the front room and mom's food is in the kitchen, so it's not like they can just help themselves.

 

[redhen]

Not sure... probably like kittens though... about 4-5 weeks old?
I'd do wet puppy food first..them mix wet and dry together and soak that down to make a gruel...

 

[Crazyland]

I started them at 4 weeks with puppy gruel.

 

[redhen]

OOh..and you gots pups?? we need pics..

 

[pbjmaker]

We started ours on puppy food around 3 -4 weeks. I took our coffee grinder and ground it up some then wet it down and put it in a shallow plate/bowl thing we have. It worked great but they did get messy trying to walk through it.

 

[MomtoSyd&Emma]

Quote:
Yep this is exactly what I did too, I also added puppy replacement milk to the powdered (ground up) puppy food as I was bottle feeding them since she wasnt producing enough milk (Boxer with 10 pups)

I started offering food at 4 weeks to them, and every week ground the food a lil less until it was just whole puppy food pieces

 

[BlacksheepCardigans]

Mine start on ground beef and goat's milk at 2.5 weeks, move to ground tripe and milk by three weeks. If it's a small litter I hold out until three weeks as long as their gain is still good. They should have been wormed at 14 days; if you haven't done that yet it should be done ASAP.

 

[bagendhens]

i start around 4 weeks unless momma shows interest in starting early 9if she wants to go early shell start regurgitating for them) with mush/soft food...
i let momma abundance wean unless theres an issue where she NEEDS to stop early, ill offer mush, but shell continue feeding while she feels comfortable and generally weans them herself around 6-8 weeks old. i dont let pusp go to new homes untill 10 weeks.

 

[pbjmaker]

I made sure that I kept the pups nails trimmed starting around 1 week old so that she wouldn't wean too early. We ended up making mama a shirt thing to get them weaned around 6-7 weeks. She wanted to keep feeding them along with the food.
Needless to say with the weekly nail trimmings starting at a week, the pups have no problem sitting still to have it done now. They are also really good about letting the vet look in their mouths, etc.

Mine left around 8 1/2 to 12 weeks. Oh wait there are still two here - but they're not going anywhere!

 

[Redyre Rotties]

It is not necessary to force wean puppies.

Most people start feeding puppies around 3 weeks of age. If the weight gain is consistent you can wait until 4 weeks. They should be started on a rather thin gruel that they can lap up. You can gradually thicken it until it is just softened food by 5 weeks or so.