Third Week, Time for Real Food

All is well and the little ones are starting to cut teeth and begin the transition to puppy mush! This is also when they start to get somewhat playful and exploitative. Puppies start to cut teeth and develop what are know as milk teeth. This is quite a funny time to observe as they begin to chew on their littler mates and mamma as well. During this time, it’s crucial that the puppies are kept primarily with their mother and siblings. As well as this, puppies have little fear at this age. This is the optimum time to startle them with new sounds and sights to develop their startle and recovery response (vacuums, music, and just speaking to them is best we find).

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Puppy Playtime Know-how

Rough play begins to start at this point as well, not to mention toy introduction. Puppies need to learn to limit the force and strength of their bite so if mouth contact is utilized, the message is communicated with minimal damage, commonly known as bite inhibition. This is something they start to learn while with their littermates. Often a puppies play very rough and may even seem loud and aggressive. Sometimes one puppy bites another one too hard and screams out, this startles the offending puppy and teaches him how hard to bite during play. These lessons are essential for a puppy and people should not intervene in most littermate puppy – puppy interactions. Same for us, when our little ones explore with their mouths a little too aggressively, we admit a similar sound, then utilize a chew toy for corrective/positive reinforcement.

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Lets talk about the mushy mush

At around three to four weeks old, puppies begin weaning from their mother’s milk and begin a diet consisting of puppy mush, or puppy mush. This process of transition lasts 7 to 8 weeks. Puppy mush is a soft alternative to hard food that allows puppies to begin the process of eating without aid or depending on their mother’s milk. It is made primarily of dry dog food mixed with puppy formula (milk) and water to establish a consistency that is easily chewed and digestible. The use of puppy mush for weaning is gradually introduced into the puppy’s diet and increases in consistency by every week until dry food becomes its main source of nutrition.

To make the puppy mush recipe at home, you will need a blender. This recipe can feed up to 6 to 8 puppies:

• Place two cups of dry food of a very high quality (we use Canadian Naturals - Omega Fresh Deboned Angus Beef)

• Fill the rest with warm water

• Blend well

• Add in 12.5 oz of puppy milk formula (we use PetAg ESBLIAC)

• Mix by hand

We swear by this method and recipe. In all honesty, it gives a well needed break on mamma poor boobies (milk teeth are like razors!), and helps the pups with the de-worming and transition to solid foods. See how the real critics even nom down in pure bliss: