Weaning refers to the process of the puppies beginning to eat food other than mothers' milk or milk formula.
Puppies generally make their way to their new home at about seven weeks of age, and since their mother is not going with them, the pups need to have their gastrointestinal tracts accustomed to eating commercially prepared foods. In most kennels, puppies get the first taste of food other than Mom’s milk at about 3½ weeks of age. This may seem early to you, but after working with numerous breeders and seeing many litters raised in our own homes, we can guarantee that the puppies of any breed can take food on their own at this age. To make a puppy mush, stay with the same brand of food the mother is fed, selecting the company’s dry puppy food. It might be Iams, Purina, Science Diet, Nature’s Recipe, etc.
Prepare the puppy mush by placing 2 cups of high quality dry puppy food in a blender with 12.5 oz liquid puppy milk replacer and fill the rest of the blender with hot water. This should be blenderized until the consistency of human infant cereal. (This feeds 6-8 puppies of a medium-sized breed.) The puppies should receive 3-4 meals a day of this to start. Once the puppies have checked it out, walked in it, and have eaten some, the dam can be allowed to finish it and clean the puppies off. Each week, increase the amount of food, decrease the amount of the milk replacer and water that is added, and the time of blenderizing, so by 7 weeks, the puppies are eating dry food.
Once they are on dry food, it may be left in with the puppies (when the dam is out of the box) or the meal times can continue. As the puppies eat more solid food, the bitch may be let away from the puppies for an even longer period of time. By the time they are 6½-7 weeks, they should be fully weaned from the dam's milk, eating dry food, and drinking water.
If the weaning is not rushed, the bitch will naturally start decreasing milk production as the puppies increase their intake of solid food. As the puppies begin eating the puppy mush at 4 weeks of age, start changing the bitch's diet back to adult food to also help her decrease milk production. Start by replacing 1/4 of her puppy food with adult food. Keep increasing the adult food and decreasing the puppy food until by the 8th week postpartum, she is eating only adult food. During the last week of weaning, the dam's food consumption should be less than 50% above the maintenance levels and declining toward maintenance levels.
