How Long Does A Puppy Feed Off Their Mother?

Any good mother of puppies will do most of the work when it comes to caring for newborn pups up until the weaning stage so there is not a lot that you will need to do. Not only does nursing from the mother provide the puppies will all the nutrition they could possibly need, it also gives them antibodies to help prevent infections.

Under normal conditions where the puppies were born on time, safely and with no complications, weaning will occur naturally after around five to six weeks after they were born. As they grow and learn, the puppies will become more independent and spend more time away from their mother. The mother will also start to react negatively to the puppies' growing nails and teeth as these will make feeding uncomfortable for her.

However there are things that you can do as their owner in order to make the weaning process go more smoothly. Once they reach the age of about five weeks old, separate the mother and pups for a length of time and gradually increase this each day. In order to help the mother's milk supply slow down and eventually stop, it is often a good idea to slightly reduce the mother's food intake. If she is still producing milk once the weaning process is complete, then you should take her to the vets to ensure that there are no underlying problems.

As the puppies start to feed from their mother less and less, you should start to replace this liquid with some well balanced puppy food that is specially designed for eating during this time. Ask at your local pet store if you are not sure. Feed this to the puppies around three to five times a day. The whole weaning process should be successful after about one week.

They will feed totally from mum for about three weeks. After that they will still need to suckle for about another two weeks but will start taking puppy food also. Start off by offering them some puppy formula milk - do not use cow milk as this is bad for puppies. At first they will probably just stick their nose in it and blow bubbles. After a few times they learn to lap. Once they lap up the milk easily, you can start adding some very mushy puppy food to it. Over a week make this gradually less milky and more "foody", till they are eating mostly food with just a little top-up suckling from mum. The mother usually decides for herself when they can stop altogether. Some breeders force this by removing mum from her babies. I don't do this myself, I let her decide.

Between 4-8 weeks, then the puppies will know when mother does not want to feed them anymore. We have 9 puppies and at 3 weeks old we started giving them abit of dog food mashed up with a bit of liquid once a day and they still feed from there mother, not as much, the puppies have teeth and when they sukkle her they bite her so it is uncomfortable for her.

I am a Jack Russell breeder and I notice that as early as 3 weeks the pups show interest in food and water from watching their mother. I offer them a mashed up plate of the mother's food and let them decide. Usually by 4-5 weeks they are eating, drinking from a water bowl and supplementing with mum's milk. I recommend introducing food early to assist the mother maintain optimum health and recommend not removing any puppy from it's mother till 8 weeks.

When your dog is pregnant it best to when she is getting close to having her puppies to start mixing her dog food with puppy food so it is easier on your puppies, to start eating puppy food.and when she starts weaning them so you should always give her puppy food with her reagular food so its not a shock for them from regular food to puppy food then they wont have the runns( you know the runny poos) Bahah  so bad, when you start them on puppy food because they are eatting the same she is getting from the milk,  and it is hard on there system to go right to puppy food when there us to adult food from there mothers milk, so start the mother on half puppy food and half adult food before and after there born all the way up entil she weans them so there use to the puppy food then once she weans tham you can just give her adult food only again. It is very important to make sure you give vitimans to the puppies seem to take everything from a dog so it is a good Idea to give them to them it help them a lot







ure you give her vitamins to to keep her healthy they take a lot out of her.

They usually only feed for 6wks sometimes 8 wks.

Usually for 5 to 6 weeks

6 weeks or some times eight but I would be tiering for the mother if you do it longer so I only let my pups about 6 weeks that is old enough so then they can be sold or given to the pet shop. Un less their mother wants to keep them on longer

I agree with grace on this one - six weeks is the usual amount of time the puppies feed and require mother's milk.

I'm a dog lover and I know plenty about dogs. But you should feed them on their own when they are about 7 weeks old. Start them off on puppy chow and after a while switch to dog food.

I have a Staffy shes had 6 pups how long should they be staying on her 2 feed at a time. As 1 was dyed.