Tuesday, October 03, 2006

Gaining

The little girl took another feed tonight, just as I am off to bed. She had maintained her weight since the morning feed. This feed was 13 hours after that one so she is doing fine. I think the formula has given her the strength to do the work on Mum's tits. Also, I think I happened to get her when she was hungry. Will see how she is when I wake up.

In case anyone should need to know this at some point: I feed 1 ml of formula per one ounce of body weight. So a 7 oz puppy gets 7mls per feed.(obviously the amount of formula goes up as the puppy gains weight). The feeds are every two hours for the first week, 24/7, then every 3-4 hours for the next week, and they can go 6 hours at night without a feed during this second week. Once the eyes are open they get small amounts of meat which has been blended in a blender with formula. I stop bottle feeding by 4 weeks.

Oh and most importantly, use a human newborn baby bottle and teat. The ones they make for puppies are crap-they are too fast, too soft and kill puppies because the formula gets into their lungs.

I raised whole litter of 4 pups this way and they all gained weight as if they were being fed by Mum, who in this case had no milk at all for them.

The formula I use is made by ROYAL CANIN and is excellent.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the update. You're very good with your pups. She's in good hands and I'm happy she's doing better!

Anonymous said...

You are probably the best surrogate mother in the world! I'd love to see pictures, I have never seen a pup before its eyes are open!

Carole

DJ said...

Thanks Colin, for the great pics. They are just adorable. Aren't we all just the proudest bunch of 'auntees'. I wonder if you really know how much we have come to care about you and the pups.
Best, DJ