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Raising Very Young Puppy


maxsash
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Thanks for the tips

This is her kibble soaked in a little boiling water and milk.. she wont eat it unless i mush it up to pretty much weetbix. . Should i keep doing what I am doing or just let her figure it out and chew it

The Advance kibble is quite large! !

I've never fed Advance so no idea of size. At 4 weeks I would still be mushing it up but she should be able to eat it dry by 6 weeks. And Nekhbet is right, if she can't chew dry she won't be able to chew the chicken necks yet. Coles has brisket bones.

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If you want a smaller sized kibble, try the Royal Canin range of puppy foods...

I had a Dane cross rescue pup (sister to my horse puppy) at 3.5 weeks was 900g - she wasn't gaining weight with mum and littermates, so the vet advised separating her from them and making sure she got enough food. Brought her and another smaller pup from the same litter home and fed them raw chicken mince and Royal Canin Junior kibble. Didn't soak the kibble, and they ate it just fine.

T.

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If you want a smaller sized kibble, try the Royal Canin range of puppy foods...

I had a Dane cross rescue pup (sister to my horse puppy) at 3.5 weeks was 900g - she wasn't gaining weight with mum and littermates, so the vet advised separating her from them and making sure she got enough food. Brought her and another smaller pup from the same litter home and fed them raw chicken mince and Royal Canin Junior kibble. Didn't soak the kibble, and they ate it just fine.

T.

Ok Thanks for that, I did originally want Royal Canin as that's what I used to feed my Cav when he was a pup, however they were all sold out.

I am taking Max my cav to get de-sexed tomorrow, so ill take Pup along and get her checked again, weighed and hopefully buy some Royal Canin.

ill keep soaking the Advance in the meantime as she won't eat it otherwise.

She seems to be up and about more, playing with her toys and being a little terror so that's good.

I just gave her half cup of food and she didn't finish it, However I will just continue to give her the half cup and I guess if she is hungry she will eat it.

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Just soak kibble in milk , perhaps .. warm, not boiling. she doesn't really need water added - let her have access to water if she's thirsty ....

She will only have a tiny tummy yet - so yes..let her eat as much as she wants 5 times a day :)

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My very young foster pups were almost free feeding... they'd get the chicken mince (human grade) 4 times a day, and a constantly topped up bowl of kibble on hand for if they felt peckish in between. They never turned their nose up at the chicken, and they'd graze on the kibble during the day also.

The really young pup got around 25g of chicken mince per feed, and then she had the option of kibble... that was it... *grin*... they won't starve themselves to death.

She double her weight in a week, and had caught up to her littermates in 2.5 weeks - then she went back with them until mum kicked them all off the boob. They were all only comfort feeding from her by that point anyways.

T.

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I didn't see Steph's post as argumentative at all, the OP has come here asking for advice and yours WAS irresponsible IMO. I'm sure people here with large breeds don't think it's all "broohaha"

Look that's fair enough and you're entitled to your opinion. Since you haven't qualified what is that you believe was irresponsible about it I'll leave you to it. I will correct you though, there are large amounts of large and giant breed owners that absolutely believe mass marketed large breed puppy food is unnecessary. What's important with growing large breed babies is that you control the rate of growth (largely this is achieved by controlling quantity of food, and overall amount of calcium in their diet). This is actually really important for puppies of all size and breed, it's just that large breed dogs are more prone to skeletal issues from fast growth. Small and medium breeds are actually not immune to these issues.

Baxter's breeder has raised many Bullmastiff pups without buying into special diets, and he has never fed any commercial foods. He simply feeds a raw diet with approx 10% bone (he actually doesn't even weigh) It absolutely can be done, and I don't believe that stressing owners of large breed pups out is at all helpful. I find on this forum that people like to read more into posts than what's there. I maintain my original position, that the OP shouldn't be overly stressed, and with a bit of research it's easy to manage the overall calcium level in their pups diet (as ALL puppy owners should anyway).

Out of interest how many large/giant breed puppies have you raised and what did you feed them?

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Bullbreedboy, I have no doubt that your dog's breeder has successfully raised many Bullmastiff puppies on a raw diet, but please do not fall into the trap of assuming that this is the only successful way to rear giant breed puppies. I personally know several giant breed breeders (Newfoundlands, Mastiffs, Great Danes all come to mind) that use commercial diets to raise their puppies, with no ill-effects.

Many people do not understand raw feeding and for various reasons do not wish to raw feed. Although I mostly raw feed myself, I respect their decision and try to gently steer them in the direction of a reasonable quality kibble, and where a giant breed is involved, a speciality kibble which is already balanced to the specific needs without any stress whatever by the owner.

Edited by RuralPug
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Hi all .. she finally has a name I think we have settled on Kyra for now anyway I change my mind about about million times haha thank you everyone for your advice I have definitely taken a lot of it on board and its Helped

She has discovered the water bowl on her own so she is drinking that when ever she likes

she seems to have gained weight

And is eating very well...I will be starting her on bones tomorrow.

She has already starting using the pee pads.on several occasions today she ran back into her pen and use the toilet in there so I was quite stunned that she's picked up so quickly so from now on I'm going to be moving the mat outside and hopefully she'll start going out there.

my Cavalier Max, he was desexed yesterday so he's not really in the mood for her but she is just kinda been snuggling up to him and being very gentle which is really good.

all in all she's a pretty Placid friendly dog she absolutely hates the squeaky toys get very angry and growls and really does not like them at all so I will see how they go it's hard because I don't know if it's her playing or if it's her getting aggressively angry cause she doesn't like it, I have only ever had little dogs which their playfulness and growling is only very little where hers is quite loud and comes across as agressive but I don't know if I'm taking it the wrong way and she's just playing but it seems like she doesn't like the squeaky toys so I'm not sure about that I might keep an eye on it obviously I don't let her bite...I tell her No if she does

She's happy to be picked up and woken up, around food she's fine.

Very easy going along as there is no squeaky toy! !

I think she's just a bigger dog than I'm used to and got a Louder growl so maybe a few tips for those who have large breeds for the behaviours I should be keeping an eye on would be great

so thought I'd give you an update because you have all been very helpful and I appreciate it.

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.Generally hand raises puppies are very human orientated so teaching them independence is often far more important ,certainly the one offs or hand raised puppies we have had are wonderful around people,this doesn't mean you have to do much different just be cautious in what you encourage now whilst cute won't be later on & pup doesn't have mum to tell off so your are its "teacher"

Big or small there all the same just the noise is louder .

Vary the toys for enrichment ,make the toys be more for thinking & mental use than reliant on you to play with it all the time ,puppy needs to learn to be able to cope on its own as often hand raised puppies can be very clingy through no fault of there own .For some breeds it can mean a greater attachment to one person so allowing safe people to see puppy is good ,if your having visitors around & there the right people to interact with puppy let them

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I think she's just a bigger dog than I'm used to and got a Louder growl so maybe a few tips for those who have large breeds for the behaviours I should be keeping an eye on would be great

so thought I'd give you an update because you have all been very helpful and I appreciate it.

I don't think thre's particular things with big breed dogs personally, it's just that the behaviours can be more of a problem. 2 things you need to get onto early is not jumping up, because a 50 kg dog jumping up on a small, or elderly person is no good at all, and lead manners. For the lead maaners I highly recomend getting a balance harness from Black Dog with a double sided lead. There is a video on Black Dog's website on how to use it and how to train with pulsating lead. This is a very effetive technique and will be an absolute god send as your pup get's bigger and stronger. Only other thing that pops out is that MAstiff pups are often very mouthy, so getting onto appropriate mouthing behaviour early is a good idea.

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  • 3 years later...

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