The "Fading Puppy" Syndrome

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The "Fading Puppy" Syndrome

One of the most common causes of newborn puppy deaths is what has been named as the "fading puppy syndrome." Many of the unexplained puppy deaths that fall into this category would undoubtedly go elsewhere if only an accurate diagnosis could be made. Unfortunately, many of these poor little pets die so rapidly that no diagnosis can be made.

The fact is that whether or not the fading puppy syndrome is actually a distinct disease is still questionable. Many believe that it is what happens to any puppy that is unprepared, for whatever the reason, to face the stress of living in the world outside of his mother's womb. Whether or not the failure in preparation occurs before or after the pup is born depends on the reason for the puppy's fading,

Successfully saving the fading puppy that can be saved depends on recognizing the condition early enough and implementing proper remedial action. As a dog owner, you have to be very perceptive in order to recognize early enough the signs of a potential syndrome puppy. Below are some of the things to look out for:

1. An absence of the flight reaction: When normal puppies are taken from their mother and released, they will usually make every effort to scurry back to her. On the other hand, the syndrome puppy will not attempt to go anywhere.

2. Abandonment by the mother: A healthy, normal puppy is licked and protected by his mother. The syndrome puppy is left out of the litter and left in the corner to die.

3. "Slow-motion" activity: A healthy, normal pup is always busy and does not move slowly to do anything while a fading puppy makes slow, deliberate movements, almost like in a slow-motion picture.

4. Hypothermia: Most puppies can survive considerable hypothermia, and normal puppies in a litter usually feel warm and have ample supply of energy to keep their bodies from getting cold. The syndrome puppy does not like to eat and feels cold to the touch.

When you have recognized a puppy that is in the early stages of the fading puppy syndrome, you need to take him away from his mother and littermates and handle him just as if he were an orphan. In order for him to survive, you will have to raise him and feed him yourself by means of either bottle or stomach tube.

Obesity In Dogs

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Obesity In Dogs

Obesity is the most common nutritional disease in American dogs today. It is the result of simply eating more calories than are burned. Dogs have a built-in protection against this disease, a control mechanism in their brains that satisfies their hunger after they have eaten enough calories to meet their daily energy needs. However, it is possible to upset this control mechanism. By feeding the dog a food that is highly palatable, he will eat to satisfy his appetite and not his hunger. The only way to remove the excessive fat from a dog's body is by reversing the way it was put on, which is feeding the dog fewer calories than he will burn for energy. When this is done, the dog's body will burn up energy stored in his body to obtain what he needs. Fat is the most efficient source of energy and will be used in the greatest amount whenever energy is needed. A reduction in caloric intake cannot be achieved by just cutting down the quantity of food you feed your dog. Drastic cuts in the quantity of food fed will only lead to deficiencies that pose an even greater threat to the dog than the obesity does which are deficiencies of proteins, vitamins and minerals. It will also make your dog ravenously hungry! Fats and carbohydrates that contain the most calories should be replaced by ingredients that are less digestible and lower in calories.

The diet of an overweight dog should not contain more than 1400 calories per pound of dry matter. This is approximately 1250 to 1300 calories per pound of dry food or 330 to 350 calories per pound of canned food. A more accurate and convenient way of obtaining a reducing diet is to use a dietary animal food specifically designed for that purpose. This food can be obtained from a vet. It contains 330 calories per pound and is balanced to provide the correct amount of other nutrients for the dog when fed at that caloric density. Whatever the food used, the quantity of it that should be fed has to be estimated.

Portion control is the only method of feeding that can be used during a weight reducing program. Treat or supplement should not be given during the reduction program. If a dog is more than 10 pounds overweight, (over his ideal body weight) begin your weight reducing program by feeding him only 2/3 the quantity calculated to maintain his desired weight. The full amount of food should be given once a reduction in weight begins to occur. For dogs that are less than 10 lb overweight, begin with the full amount calculated. In dogs weighing less than 10 pounds, use the two-thirds guide for any dog that is more than 33% of his desired weight overweight. It may require several months or longer before a dog reaches his optimum weight. Do not expect your dog to lose the weight in just a few days. Taking off weight too fast can be dangerous to a fat dog. Once optimum weight has been attained, most dogs will have to be kept on portion control feeding. Dogs that tend to get fat need to have their intake closely regulated to prevent them from gaining back the lost weight.

The “Hurry Diarrhea” Puppy

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The “Hurry Diarrhea” Puppy

Every puppy must, eventually, be taught to depend upon something besides milk for his food. This process is called weaning and constitutes the changing of a pup's diet from liquid to solid. Most dog owners consider weaning to be that instant in time when one takes a pup from his mother. But the fact is that weaning actually takes place both before and after a pup is separated from his mother. During that time his digestive system is learning to digest the foods he will be eating for the rest of his life. Just like all learning experiences, the steps of weaning must be taken slowly or the pup's digestive system will rebel, and "hurry diarrhea" or dysentery will be the result.

An improperly weaned puppy often finds himself with nothing but strange food to eat, strange people pawing over it, and a strange environment surrounding it. As a result of this physical and psychological trauma, he will likely develop anorexia. As the puppy adjusts emotionally to his new environment, anorexia is followed by an enormous hunger. The hunger becomes so great that he will even eat the strange food that he has not learned to digest yet. If he is allowed to eat such a diet, the pup begins to suffer from alternating bouts of diarrhea and constipation.
These constant bouts with diarrhea and constipation lead to poor food absorption and injury to the lining of the intestines. Finally, the degenerative changes progress through the entire wall of the intestines. The intestines become sluggish and may stop their movement altogether. Ultimately, there is a disappearance of the intestinal lining. The intestinal wall may become as thin as tissue paper. The pup then rapidly becomes emaciated and dehydrated. He will eventually die unless proper remedial actions are taken immediately.

The secret to preventing hurry diarrhea is a full understanding of what it is. The "hurry" is used because the dog owner tried to push the puppy too fast with a food his intestinal tract was not yet ready for. Food which might be perfectly suitable for an adult dog was fed too soon to a puppy that has just been weaned.

When you have gotten in too big a hurry and hurry diarrhea occurs, you need to back up and start all over again. Return to the bland, simply digested foods that should be fed to a pup just learning to eat solid food, and then train his intestine to handle each new food in succession. At the same time, you must contend with an irritated, perhaps diseased intestine, which complicates your efforts considerably. There is no fast cure for hurry diarrhea. What your puppy needs is a little slow and easy treatment as well as a patient owner.

Nutritional Diseases In Your Dog

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Nutritional Diseases In Your Dog

Similar to healthy dogs, sick dogs need to eat in order to supply energy and nutrients for growth, for replacement and repair; as well as to meet an ever changing need. Nutritional requirements for a sick dog usually do not differ greatly from those of a healthy dog. A sick dog's dietary needs, however, can become substantially different from those of a healthy dog.

Diseases in which a dog's diet will need to be changed are often due to true nutritional diseases, in which the diet itself is responsible for the disease. Most of the true nutritional diseases are deficiency diseases. What this means is that they are diseases caused by a diet that contains an insufficient amount of one or more needed nutrients. Most of these diseases were the result of inadequate or improperly balanced home-made food. Since cost-effective commercial food became more and more nourishing, most of these deficiency diseases gradually disappeared. Vitamin or mineral deficiencies are rarely seen as a primary disease any more. Both vitamins and minerals are inexpensive and are needed in such small amounts that today, few commercial dog foods fail to contain them in adequate amounts.

Although energy and protein continue to be a problem with some dog foods, the number of brands that still contain insufficient fat or poor quality, indigestible protein become less and less every year. When a deficiency of fat occurs, it most often appears as an insufficient amount of total energy in the diet which results in weight loss, sluggishness, dry and dull hair coat, poor physical condition and, in some extreme cases, emaciation and uncontrolled diarrhea. A deficiency of essential fatty acids may also occur, although it is unlikely. The total amount of the fats most often used in commercial foods can drop to as low as 1% of the diet and that diet will still contain sufficient fatty acids. The only exception to this might be in cases of dry foods where larger quantities of fat have turned rancid.

When a deficiency of fatty acids does occur, it appears as a loss of weight and condition, a dry, dull coat, but more specifically as eroded areas on the skin. These will most likely show on the pads of the feet, between the toes and over the bony protuberances of the body where pressure reduces the blood supply. Although these erosions may superficially resemble "hot spots," they differ from them in four major aspects such as: They do not respond to routine steroid therapy; they appear on both short-haired as well as long-haired dogs; they require an average of three months to heal; and adding fatty acids to the diet promotes their recovery, because a deficiency of fatty acids caused them.

A deficiency of protein in the diet is still sometimes seen. This causes weight loss and dull, dry hair coats. It may also produce anemia, reduce the body’s ability to cope with and recover from infections, and, if left neglected, will eventually lead to the dog’s death.

Worms Resulting From Fad Diets

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Worms Resulting From Fad Diets

Internal parasites are a constant threat to dogs because of their natural habits. Moderate infestations with intestinal worms may go unnoticed unless the dog is eating a deficient diet. When puppies are infested with only moderate amounts of roundworms, fed diets containing inadequate protein, the injury resulting from the worms is far greater than the injury would be in puppies eating an adequate diet. This is because the protein deficiency favors the rapid growth and build-up of the parasites.

Every new parasite further decreases the effective value of what little protein the dog does eat. Feeding the infested dog a diet adequate in protein stops the injuries and weight loss being caused by the worms, but will not reverse these effects until the dog is wormed. On the other hand, dogs that are fed adequate levels of energy and protein show very little adverse effects from even heavy infestations with roundworms, except for being slightly underweight. This is immediately corrected when the dog is wormed.

Dietary considerations should be made from the viewpoint of prevention rather than from the viewpoint of treatment. Dogs that are being fed with diet adequate in protein and energy have far less susceptibility to either roundworms or hookworms, and are much more capable of resisting potential infestations.

Dog Anorexia

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Dog Anorexia

When a dog refuses to eat or eats only a portion of what he needs or what he usually eats every day, this will also produce a deficiency. The term Anorexia is used to describe the condition when a dog refuses to eat. Many dog owners take their dog's eating for granted until the dog actually stops eating. A dog's eating habits are normally controlled by hunger, appetite, and the satisfaction of these two. This control may be abnormally affected by emotions, sensations, or the taste of the food. Another thing that causes a disturbance of the dog's natural eating behavior is mechanical interruption. Broken jaws, a fish hook in the tongue or a rubber ball stuck in the throat are typical examples of mechanical anorexia. A lot of dog owners think that it is normal for all dogs to miss a meal and that a missed meal is not something to be concerned about. However, a healthy dog is always hungry at meal time, just as a healthy person is. Any time a dog refuses to eat, it is a signal to you that something is not right. If the dog refuses two meals in a row, you can be certain that there is something wrong, either with your dog or with his food.

Obviously, a dog gradually losses weight once he stops eating. A 20 lb Beagle will lose 0.4 pound (six and one-half ounces) each day he refuses to eat. This weight loss occurs because the dog is breaking down and using up his own body. Since there are no nutrients coming in, a dog with anorexia must literally burn itself up in order to obtain the energy and nutrients needed for his essential life functions. When extra demands from disease are piled on those suffering from anorexia, the burn-up is even faster. That Beagle cannot afford to lose ฝ lb of his body weight every day for very long!

Included within the weight lost will be fats, carbohydrates and protein. The most important loss to a dog is protein. By the end of only two days of anorexia, that 20 lb Beagle will already have lost about 3% of his total body protein. This becomes increasingly important if one considers that protein is essential not only for normal metabolism but for wound healing, tissue repair and combating infections. Actions to replace the intake of anorectic dogs should be implemented immediately. Unwillingness or failure to overcome the deficiencies of calories and nutrients created by anorexia can mean the difference between recovery and death during an illness.

The same diet the dog was eating before anorexia is suitable, as long as the cause of the anorexia does not make it unsuitable. Because dogs become inactive with anorexia, their calorie need is somewhat less than for most dogs. If they have a fever, however, this rapidly increases their caloric requirements.

Dogs with anorexia must be force-fed either by spoon feeding or by intragastric intubation. This type of diet should be fed only long enough to get a dog back to eating satisfactorily on his own and should never become a substitute for actually determining the cause of the anorexia or for overcoming that cause.

Protein Deficiency In Dogs

Protein Deficiency In Dogs

There are three common causes of protein deficiency in a dog's diet: Insufficient total protein in the diet; imbalanced and poor-quality dietary protein; and bulky, low-energy diets.

1. Insufficient total protein in the diet. This cause is frequently seen in kennels of hunting dogs where their owners attempt to cut down. Such items, considered as lacking in protein, are cornbread, biscuits, oatmeal, boiled potatoes and cheap, dry dog foods composed mostly of cereal, may make up as much as 90 percent of these dogs' diet.

2. Imbalanced, poor-quality dietary protein. Imbalanced food containing inexpensive proteins of low biological value are frequently found among the 10-cent-a-can dog foods. The protein in such foods is usually gelatin, collagen, or those found in cereal wastes. A typical product is an example made from rejected pinto beans from a canning plant for humans' food.

3. Bulky, low-energy diets which cause the marginal amounts of protein present to be converted to energy. Foods, either canned or dry, containing too little fat or too much cereal wastes, tendons and similar indigestible materials are usually the cause of this type of protein deficiency.

The Weaning Procedure

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The Weaning Procedure

Most dog owners allow their pups to eat directly from the mother's bowl as soon as they are able to do so. This enables them to learn, by observation, how to eat. However, continuing this practice for more than a few days after the puppies begin to eat has several objectionable features. First, the mother usually is not eating the same diet that her puppies should be eating. Second, the mother often resents her puppies eating from her bowl and will snarl and snap at them when they start to investigate or experiment with her food. Such behavior is hardly conducive to an atmosphere for teaching little puppies that the food pan is one of the best places to know. Finally, feeding containers for mothers are seldom fitting for tiny pups, and vice versa.

If the suckling puppy's diet has contained some solid food beginning three to four weeks after he was whelped, he will be weaned by six to seven weeks of age. If the pup has been orphaned and hand-fed, he will have to be trained by hand to eat solid foods. Similarly, if the pup is abruptly snatched from his mother at six or seven weeks of age and has had little or no solid food beforehand, he too will need to be taught to eat solid foods.

Teaching the young puppy to eat can be a very funny experience. To some dog owners, it may also seem like a time-wasting step in raising a dog. By individually hand-training each pup, however, you can ensure that no pup will fall behind nutritionally simply because he does not know how to eat food from a pan.

Infant puppies should get their first lesson in eating from a pan on an individual basis and without the distraction from littermates. Place the pup up to the pan of food and stick his muzzle in. Try not to get his nose in, if that's possible. Some puppies tend to splatter and fuss when milk hits them in the face for the first time! Repeat the dunking several times. Once the puppy gets the idea, let him have his own way to explore and experiment with the pan full of food. Some puppies get the hang of pan-feeding almost instantly. One lick of their tongues and they are after the milk mixture as if it was their first meal in a week. Other pups may appear to miss the idea entirely, and would rather bathe in the pan than drink from it.

After a few minutes, or before your patience runs out, pick the puppy up and wipe off the excess milk with a damp cloth. Dry the dampened hair and put the pup back with his litter mates. Then try another, until every pup in the litter has had a turn. Once you have succeeded in training one or two pups to become proficient eaters, it may help to put a slow learned pup up to the bowl with one of the good eaters. Puppies learn by example, and since an empty stomach is one of the greatest motivating forces known to them, the "see and do" method often does the job.

The Proper Feeding Procedure For your Puppy

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The Proper Feeding Procedure For your Puppy

The growing puppy should be weighed once a week for the first six months of his life. The weekly growth rate, which starts from weaning to six months, should be very constant that it forms a straight line when plotted on a graph. The amount of food consumed by a fast growing puppy should be increased at almost the same rate as the puppy's growth. The only way to make sure this increase in food consumption happens at the proper rate is to feed a puppy from a self-feeder. Whenever a puppy eats everything he is fed, add a little more, so that you are always offering the puppy just a little more than he will eat.

Puppies obtained after weaning should already have an established feeding program from the previous owner. You should make every effort to find out everything you can about the type of feeding program from the old owner. The old owner should provide you with information that includes the type of food that the puppy is currently eating as well as the feeding times. In addition, the previous owner should tell you the amount of food given, so that you can duplicate them for at least a few days until the puppy has become used to his new surroundings.

Do not be afraid to change the old routine, however. Such a change is one of those that are considered acceptable when it comes to dog feeding. Do not be misled into feeding your new puppy exactly the same way his previous owner was feeding him, just because you feel that the breeder is an experienced dog feeder. Just because that person is a breeder does not necessary make him/her an expert in dog feeding. In many cases, most breeders, in their innocent ignorance, felt they were doing one of their puppies and his new owner a favor by passing their misinformation along. If you feel that there is a need to change your new puppy's diet or feeding method, feel free to do so. Once the puppy is familiar to his new home and the people that go with it, you can begin introducing him to a new feeding habit. Just remember to do it slowly, one step at a time.

The Growing Puppy

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The Growing Puppy

After the puppy has been weaned, he can begin to learn how to handle and digest different types of new foods. During the next 12 to 18 months of his life, he will continue to learn how to cope with the variety of new foods he eats. For the first six to eight months of that period the puppy will be both growing and using nutrients and energy at an incredible rate. If a food is fed containing ingredients to which a puppy is not used to or nutrients that are difficult to digest, he may be unable to obtain sufficient nutrients and energy to sustain his rapid growth. In such cases the puppies are usually stunted.

In addition, foods containing too many ingredients which the puppy has not yet learned to digest can cause another problem called "hurry diarrhea". When a dog owner gets in too big a hurry to feed adult dog food to a puppy, excessive amounts of indigestible materials are usually introduced into the puppy's digestive tract. These materials irritate the sensitive intestine of the inexperienced puppy and produce a diarrhea.

Formulating a suitable diet for a puppy is one of the most important steps in starting a dog's life. The only source of nourishment a rapidly growing puppy receives comes exclusively from what his owner provides him. His health and growth will be a reflection of how well the owner is doing his job. If you provide your pet with poor materials during this building period your puppy will be destined to carry inferior parts for the rest of its life.

A growing puppy needs twice as much energy and nutrients as an adult dog. Simply feeding him twice as much as an adult dog's food is not enough, however. The energy and nutrients must be in a form that is digestible by the puppy's inexperienced and sensitive digestive tract. However, as the puppy grows older, the diet can include foods that are more and more difficult for a dog to digest. Continue to feed your growing puppy the same food that was used to wean him, but gradually add additional foods to train the puppy's inexperienced digestive system. Just as the food fed to an adult is not suitable for a puppy, the food fed to a puppy is not suitable for an adult dog.

By the time the puppy has reached maturity, his digestive system should be thoroughly trained to handle all of the foods it will be fed during his adult life. Generally, canned and soft-moist foods contain ingredients of higher digestibility than dry foods. Canned foods are usually more suitable to feed to growing puppies than soft-moist foods. There are exceptions, however, and a few dry foods containing easily digestible nutrients are much better for feeding fast growing puppies than numerous canned foods containing poorly digestible nutrients.

Procedures For Bottle Feeding Your Puppy

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Procedures For Bottle Feeding Your Puppy

When bottle feeding your puppy, start by filling the bottles with water and then put on the nipples and invert them to see if they leak. By squeezing the bottle slightly the increased internal pressure aids in discovering leaks. If the stream of water from the hole in the nipple is less than the diameter of a straight pin, heat a needle and enlarge the hole a little. Wash all the bottles and nipples in hot, soapy water and then sterilize them. Pour just enough formula into the bottle that will provide a single feeding and warm it to room temperature. This can be done by holding it under hot tap water, while turning the bottle.

Once the milk is warmed, hold the puppy in a normal upright position and poke the nipple into his mouth. Some pups will get the hang of it right away while others are less perceptive. Squeezing a little drop of milk on to the tip of the nipple before putting it into the pup's mouth may encourage some pups to start sucking on the nipple. Never squeeze milk out of the bottle while the nipple is in the puppy's mouth! This is one of the quickest ways to strangle him with milk.

If you are having difficulty in getting the puppy to suck and swallow voluntarily, put the pup back and try another. Use a separate bottle for each pup. There are three reasons for this. First, you know exactly how much you are feeding each pup and can measure precisely how much that pup drinks. Second, if you get a disease outbreak you will reduce the chance of spreading it from puppy to puppy with an unclean nipple. Third, if you need to go back and try to get him to drink a little more, you do not need to keep close track of how much he already has eaten because the amount he still needs is what is left in his own bottle. While the puppy is nursing he should have a bowel movement and should urinate. If either fails to occur it usually can be provoked by a little stimulation by gently rubbing his anal area or sponging the groin and buttocks with a little warm water. Some owners place their pups on a warmed, folded, terry-cloth towel while they feed them. The roughness of the towel helps stimulate the elimination. The danger in bottle feeding is in the possibility that a puppy will suck some of the milk down his windpipe and strangle. If enough milk is sucked down, the pup will drown outright. Even if the amount sucked in is too little to drown the puppy, it will still injure his sensitive lungs.

When the lungs are injured, pneumonia is almost always the result. Between 12 to 24 hours after strangulation the puppy will refuse to eat, begin to experience breathing difficulty, produce bubbling and gurgling sounds as he breathes and very shortly, die. You must prevent this from happening by every means possible. When a puppy gags or strangles and milk starts coming out of his mouth and nose, take the bottle away immediately. Place the pup between your palms, head outward, and use your fingers to hold its head and backbone in a straight line. Place the pup between your legs, at arm's length, and swing it up and down. The centrifugal force produced by this will sling the milk out of the puppy's mouth and nose and, with luck, out of the windpipe as well.

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Feeding Your Puppy

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Feeding Your Puppy

A puppy always tells his dog owner whether he is getting too much or too little food in several ways. Crying is one of the most often recognized, but least likely to be always accurate. Although hungry puppies do cry, so do cold puppies, hot puppies, puppies that were disturbed from a nap, lost puppies, sad puppies, etc. Crying is simply nature's way of giving a puppy a means of telling everybody that he is unhappy. Anything that makes a puppy unhappy will probably also make him cry, even having his tummy too full. Therefore, to say that a puppy is crying because he is hungry requires a judgment on the owner’s part. And since we do not think like a puppy, we have to use the reactions of the puppy's system to determine whether or not he is getting enough to eat.

Every time you feed a puppy, two things should happen. First, he should have a bowel movement and second, he should urinate. Sometimes a puppy may need a little encouragement by rubbing his anal area, but he should always perform both acts if everything is going right. The makeup and amount of his feces and urine are important clues that tell you how well you are doing when it comes to properly feeding your pet. For one thing, the puppy's stool should be formed as it is expelled, but its consistency should be soft and pasty. The color will depend to some extent on what you are feeding him. But in every case, it should not vary from a pale tan to a mahogany brown. The inside of the stool may be yellow-brown in many cases. Stools that are green, bluish-white or clear signal trouble. Even tan or brownish stools that are watery, lumpy, hard or curdled may indicate something is not right. Whenever either off-color or off-form stools occur, stop feeding immediately and skip the next feeding entirely.

Begin the following feeding with a formula that has been diluted one-half with boiled water. Continue to feed the same quantity as you did the undiluted food. If this fails to produce an improvement in the stool, reduce the quantity you are feeding by 25 % at each feeding. If stools continue to be off-color or off-form, consult your vet.

A puppy's urination is an indicator of his water balance. The quantity should be about the same each time the puppy urinates. It might be pale yellow to almost clear, but should never be deep yellow or orange. Also, it should always be like water and never like syrup and should smell like urine. Urine that is scanty, dark in color, or syrupy, indicates that the pup is not getting enough water. More water should be supplied, either added to the formula or fed separately. If the urine seems excessive in amount, unduly clear, or thin, the water concentration of the formula should be re-checked to make sure that he is not getting too much water. If urine production stops altogether for longer than four feedings, take the puppy to a vet as soon as possible.

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Your Puppy’s Diet

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Your Puppy’s Diet

Liver is a very important part of your growing puppy’s diet. Whether it is chopped, raw or slightly braised, liver adds an essential nutrient to his meal that cannot be found from any other source. The only problem a dog owner may encounter when feeding liver to a puppy is diarrhea. Because of this, they should be trained slowly to eat liver and should not be fed amounts so great that their quantity, alone, produces a loose stool.

If you are feeding your puppy commercial foods, such foods should be improved by adding one tablespoonful of liver and one tablespoonful of corn oil per pound of dry matter. This is equivalent to approximately ผ tablespoonful per can of canned food and 2/3 tablespoonful per 16 ounces of soft-moist.

The amount of good-quality protein may also need to be increased in some commercial foods fed to puppies. This can be achieved by adding two ounces of any one of the following to each pound of canned food: cottage cheese, hard-boiled egg, processed American cheese, ground chuck, fried or baked fish or chipped roast beef. Four tablespoonfuls of dried, skimmed milk also add an adequate amount of extra protein to a dry food being used to feed a fast growing puppy.

Feeding Methods

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Feeding Methods

There are two common methods that are being used to feed nursing puppies: Bottle feeding and tube feeding.

Bottle feeding: Bottles and nipples have been used for feeding newborn puppies for many years. The form most often used today is the toy doll's bottle. Most of these are made from plastic and some have real rubber nipples that are made in the same shape and form as the larger baby nipples. Bottle feeding a newborn puppy is not much different from bottle feeding an infant. Keep in mind that all equipment should be very clean. The bottles and nipples should be sterilized, the formula boiled, and the hands and utensils washed in hot soapy water.

Tube feeding: Another way of feeding a newborn puppy is through feeding tubes. With the proper equipment and experience, a pup's entire feeding can be placed into its stomach without getting the milk anywhere close to the trachea or the lungs. Once the dog owner is used to the technique of feeding the newborn puppy with a stomach tube it is unlikely that he will ever again feed a puppy with a bottle and nipple. The feeding tube eliminates bottles and nipples that have to be cleaned after each feeding and sterilized before the next. Also, the danger of inhaled milk, which sometimes happens during bottle feeding, is greatly reduced and the feeding time is reduced by 75 %.

Weaning Your Puppy

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Weaning Your Puppy

Whether a newborn puppy is fed by his own mother or by his owner, he must eventually be taught to depend on something besides milk for his food. This learning process is called "weaning", and represents the changing of a puppy's diet from liquid to solid. At about three to four weeks of age, as soon as their eyes open and they are able to move about with some ease, most puppies will begin to experiment with the solid foods being fed to their mother. When this happens it is time to begin to teach the puppies to eat from the pan.

Instituting such an early feeding procedure accomplishes four important things. First, it allows you to feed the puppies a food that is more satisfactory for them than the food you are feeding their mother. Second, it speeds up the weaning process because the puppies will learn to eat solid food at an earlier age. Third, it begins the social interaction between the puppy and his owners. And finally, it allows you to reduce the mother's intake of food at the same rate you increase that of her puppies. The latter prevents the mother from overeating as the early feeding of her pups promotes reduced lactation.

Weaning is a learning process in which the pups' digestive system is trained to eat solid foods. Before the puppy is born, he is fed by his mother with pre-digested nutrients. When he is whelped the puppy drinks the mother's milk. The mother's milk contains some of the most digestible nutrients that a puppy can eat. At weaning the puppy's digestive system must learn to handle each new food in turn, as it comes to him. Similar to all learning processes, the weaning process cannot be taught faster than the puppy's ability to learn.

In formulating the diet, the ingredients that make up the food fed to a puppy that is starting to wean must be highly digestible and non-irritating. An excellent weaning diet can be made easily by preparing slurry using a specialized dietary animal foods designed to be fed to patients with gastro-intestinal disorders, mixed into equal parts of the mother's milk substitutes. "Half and half" coffee cream can also be used. High-quality ration-type commercial foods also make adequate solid foods to mix with the liquid part of the diet. In all cases, ผ to ฝ tablespoonful of grated, raw liver should be added to each can of food just before it is mixed. The slurry can be either beaten with a fork or mixed in a blender.

For larger breeds, it may be more practical to use the higher quality, expanded dry foods in combination with the canned foods to blend with the liquids. Addition of dry foods may also help these larger, faster-growing puppies to get sufficient nutrients in the quantity of food they are able to consume in. Whatever the mixture used, the quantity of milk substitute in it is gradually reduced, so that when the puppy is about six or seven weeks old, he is only eating pure, solid food.

Tube Feeding Your Puppy: Part 2

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Tube Feeding Your Puppy: Part 2

So far, we have discussed the first three steps for tube feeding a puppy. Listed below is the four remaining steps on how to properly administer the procedure.

Step 4: With the puppy’s mouth open, insert the end of the tube into the groove formed by the top of the tongue. Carefully push the tube back into the pharynx. You have to push the tube straight in until it reaches the depth of the pre-determined mark. If it does not go down smoothly to the depth of the mark, it is not where it should be. If the tube is accidentally inserted into the trachea, healthy puppies will cough and struggle violently. In addition, a tube that is inserted into the trachea will usually stop about half-way to the mark where it encounters the division of the trachea. Once the tube is successfully inserted to the depth of the mark, slip your thumb and forefinger from the cheeks to the tube, and hold it firmly in the mouth at the level of the mark. Slide your other fingers up and around the puppy's head, leaving the little finger behind the front legs to give it a steady hold.

Step 5: While the tube is held firmly in place, stick the open end of the tube into a small jar of water. If a series of bubbles are produced in the water, it is likely an indication that the tube has slipped into the trachea. It may also indicate that the puppy has a little gas in his stomach. In any case, however, the tube should be removed and blown clear of water, then reinserted until no air bubbles appear in the water.

Step 6: Once the tube is safely inserted in the stomach, continue to hold the tube firmly in the puppy's mouth with the thumb and forefinger. With the other hand, place the open end of the tube between the forefinger and middle finger of the hand that holds the tube in the puppy's mouth. Once again, with the opposite hand, pick up the previously filled syringe and insert it snugly into the open end of the tube.

Step 7: With the syringe firmly attached, apply gentle pressure with the thumb to the syringe plunger and deliver the substitute mother's milk. Continue to deliver the food until the correct amount has been administered. Then, draw back slightly on the plunger and gently slip the tube out, still attached to the syringe.

Tube Feeding Your Puppy: Part 1

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Tube Feeding Your Puppy: Part 1

A safe way to nurse a newborn puppy without the risk of strangulation is by using a feeding tube. The equipment needed for tube feeding an orphaned or abandoned puppy is quite simple. You will need a #8 or a #10 French infant feeding tube, a hypodermic syringe, and a substitute for mother's milk. The tube and syringe are disposable and can be thrown away after each use. On the other hand, there are also reusable equipment such as glass barrel syringes and rubber feeding tubes that are available but must be thoroughly cleaned right after each use. One great advantage of these feeding tubes is that they can be placed in water and boiled, along with any other equipment, when sterilization is required.

After the proper equipment has been gathered, the feeding of a puppy with a stomach tube is performed by applying the following steps:

Step 1: Fill the syringe about ฝ full of the warmed mother’s milk substitute and put it aside for future use. Then, determine the proper depth to which the tube should be inserted by measuring, with the tube, the distance between the puppy's nose and a point just behind the elbow or just in front of the last rib. This is approximately where the stomach of the puppy is located. Continue to hold the tube by your thumb and forefinger. ;

Step 2: The next step is to mark the tube at the correct depth measured in step 1. This can be done using a marking pen, or with a tiny piece of tape.

Step 3: With the marked tube still held between the thumb and forefinger, hold the puppy with the opposite hand, placing the thumb and forefinger on the cheeks, one on each side of the puppy's mouth. Use the remaining three fingers of the same hand to grasp the puppy. The middle finger is placed around the puppy's neck, in front of the forelegs. The fourth finger grasps the rib cage just behind the front legs. The little finger is placed in front of the hind legs, either in the groin or around the abdomen, depending on the puppy's length. Once the puppy is held firmly in hand, pry its jaw open with the little finger of the hand holding the tube. Gentle and steady pressure is placed on the sides of the mouth at the same time. By maintaining this light pressure, the mouth can be held agape once it is opened.

Three Steps To Determine How Much Food To Give Your Puppy

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Three Steps To Determine How Much Food To Give Your Puppy
To determine the amount of food to begin with when you start feeding a growing puppy, apply the following steps:

Step 1: Find a puppy feeding chart and determine the number of calories per pound of body weight your puppy should have for his age. For example, a 7-week-old pup weighing five pounds needs 400 calories every day.

Step 2: Divide the number of calories contained in a pound of the food you are feeding into the number of calories your puppy needs every day to find out how much food you should offer to begin with. For instance, if the 7-week-old pup is being fed a food containing 600 calories per pound, he needs about 400/600 cal per Ib. or.66 pounds of food each day.

Step 3: Divide the amount of food needed each day into the appropriate number of daily feedings, according to the following rule: If the puppy is from six weeks to four months of age, feed him four times per day. If the pup is from four months to 12 months, feed it three times daily. When the pup is over 12 months, feed him twice daily for the rest of his life, 1/3 in the morning and 2/3 in the evening.

Puppies do not need to be fed six to eight times daily. Although such frequent feedings may improve slightly the efficiency with which the puppy uses the food, it is to such a small degree that the extra time spent in preparing and feeding so many meals is not worth the effort. Puppies have been raised successfully with only two or three daily feedings immediately from weaning, but four seems to be the number that provides the best growth for the least effort by the dog owner. If a puppy cleans up every bit of food offered for three days in a row, add five% more food to the daily feeding. If he continues to eat everything he is offered for three more days, add five% more food.

Continue to add food at this rate until the puppy leaves a tiny bit at each meal. It is entirely possible in a growing puppy, that you may never reach a point at which he will leave any food, until he is almost grown. There is no need to worry as long as the puppy gains about the same amount of weight each week as he did the week before. Between 10 and 12 months of age, the rate at which a puppy grows starts to slow down. At the same time the dog's food consumption also begins to drop. This is a normal occurrence, brought about by the reduction in the dog's need for extra nutrients and energy required for growth. The reduction is simply an indication that the puppy is reaching maturity.

Some dog owners may mistake this reduction in food consumption as an indication of illness. This fear becomes even more pronounced when the maturing process makes the dog less active, as well. Novice dog owners usually forget that human adolescents go through the same steps on their way to becoming adults. Other dog owners may forget the fact that the maturing process in the dog requires only about 12 months to complete, while in humans it usually takes 20 years!

Three Factors for Successful Hand-rearing of Puppies

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Three Factors for Successful Hand-rearing of Puppies

These days, the development of successful hand-rearing methods has made it so much easier to raise orphaned or abandoned puppies. Dog owners who enjoy a high degree of success raising newborn pups pay careful attention to the three following principles: Giving a suitable environment; feeding a nutritionally complete formula; and having a regular feeding schedule.

1. Giving a suitable environment: Regulating the right environment such as providing warm temperature, humidity, and keeping the puppy comfortable, quiet, and undisturbed are the three most important requirements for a puppy's proper environment.

2. Feeding a nutritionally complete formula: We all know that the ideal food to feed to newborn puppies is their mother's milk. However, any replacement for the mother's milk should approximate it as closely as possible. Milk from cow is too dilute for puppies and should only be used as an emergency food. Every effort should be made to replace it with a more suitable substitute as soon as possible. However, a much more suitable emergency formula can be made from evaporated canned milk. This can be achieved by mixing three parts of evaporated milk, as it comes from the can, with one part of warm water. With this mixture, milk with 20 % solids will be formed. This mixture will have the amount of nutrients that is close to that of the mother's milk. In addition, commercial formulas designed to be used for feeding orphaned or abandoned puppies is also a good substitute. These products closely resemble the mother's milk in content.

3. Regular feeding schedule: If their formula resembles the mother’s milk closely enough, newborn puppies of small and medium-size breeds do not need to be fed more than four times per day. For larger breeds however, this number may need to be increased to six meals. Using these measurements with a formula of proper content, the total daily quantity required will divide into four to six equal feedings that will leave the puppy with a moderately distended stomach following each feeding. The exact quantity to be fed must always be left to the discretion of the owner feeding the puppy. Remember that common sense is still one of the most important aspects of successfully raising infant puppies. Always keep in mind that it is better to underfeed than to overfeed.

What is Colostrum?

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What is Colostrum?

No matter how close a puppy’s formula resembles the mother's milk, there is one ingredient that the dog owner cannot provide his puppy. This formula is the colostrum. Colostrum is found in the first few days of the mother's milk and protects her puppies from disease while their tiny bodies are learning to protect themselves.

There is no substitute for colostrum. Whenever possible, every newborn puppy should nurse a newly freshened female dog, even if she is not the puppy's own mother, for at least the first 24 hours of the puppy’s life. The losses among hand-fed puppies that fail to get colostrum during that first 24 hours are incredibly higher than among those that do. On the other hand, even colostrum cannot protect newborn puppies against the more dangerous bacteria. Also, colostrum cannot protect the puppy against overwhelming numbers of the less dangerous ones, such as numbers that come with unclean utensils and feeding equipment. When colostrum-filled milk is not available, the necessity for cleanliness and proper handling of all items used to house and feed the newborn puppies is increased ten-fold.

How To Change A Dog's Diet

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How To Change A Dog's Diet

There are five basic steps when it comes to changing your dog's diet. They are as follows:

Step 1: lf a dog is in a new environment, has a new owner, or is being required to undergo some other emotional or physical strain, food changes should be postponed until the stress has been eliminated or the dog has adapted to it. With changes in ownership, the diet fed by the previous owner should be obtained if at all possible and fed until the dog becomes accustomed to its new surroundings.

Step 2: Once the dog is in a proper emotional state to accept a dietary change it should be accomplished without delay. Start by substituting 25 percent of the old food with new food. Mix the two thoroughly making every attempt to conceal the new food within the old. This mixture should be fed until the dog eats the mixture with the same relish that it ate its previous food. For some dogs this may be the first time the mixture is fed; for others it may take several days or even weeks. Don't hurry the procedure. After all, the dog may have had 24 months to get accustomed to its old diet. Don't expect it to change all of that in just 24 hours. Once the dog is eating the 25:75 mixture as well as it did its previous food, proceed to step three

Step 3: During the third step, 50 percent of the old food is replaced by new food and slightly less effort is made to conceal it within the old food. Again, when the dog is eating the 50:50 mixture with the same gusto it did its previous food, proceed to step four.

Step 4: Now 75 percent of the new food is present in the mixture being fed, and little if any effort is made to conceal the new food except to mix it evenly with the ordinal food. By now, most dogs will readily accept the increased mixture the first time it is fed. If the dog accepted the 50:50 mixture at the first feeding, step four can be eliminated and you can proceed directly to step five.

Step 5: This is the final step, the one in which all of the old food is eliminated from the dog's diet. One hundred percent of the new food is fed from then on. For some dogs this procedure may take only three days and require only steps two, three and five. For others it may take longer and must progress through each step separately. Do not become discouraged. With dogs, food likes and dislikes are mostly learned from previous experiences. Changing a food is a process of unlearning and relearning, and such things cannot be hurried.
The third general consideration that should be made by all dog feeders any time they feed a dog has more to do with human behavior than it does with a dog's.

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Puppy Feeding Program

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Puppy Feeding Program

The best time to determine the proper feeding programs for your pet is during puppy hood. Meanwhile, the average time for the dog owner to assume the responsibility of feeding a dog is at weaning. Sometimes, this task begins at birth or shortly right after. In some unfortunate circumstances where a puppy is orphaned, or in situations where the mother whelps so many puppies that she cannot feed them all, the dog owner may have to begin his feeding chores while the puppy is still only hours old.

Bur whether the puppy is five hours, five weeks or five months old, there are three basic feeding steps that are essential in any puppy feeding program. The first step is to weigh each puppy. A record of his weight and the date it was taken should be kept on a separate record for each one. The second step is to determine the type of diet to give to the puppy. This will depend on the stage of growth the puppy has attained. The third and final step in puppy feeding is to determine the quantity of food needed to start the program. This will depend on the age of the puppy, his weigh, and the caloric density of the food.

Setting Good Eating Habits

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Setting Good Eating Habits

A dog's eating habits are controlled by three things: its brain, its experiences, and its environment. The very first experiment in behavioral psychology was done by a scientist named Pavlov who taught dogs to get ready to eat when they heard a certain sound. Since that initial experiment, scientists have observed over and over how important the things happening around, and to, a dog are when it comes to affecting the dog's eating habits.

Once, when dogs were wild, most of their daily activity was devoted to obtaining a meal. While the need for this activity has practically disappeared, mealtime still constitutes one of the most important events in a dog's life. And, many of a dog's behavioral responses are still linked to its eating routine.

Today's dogs have become creatures of habit. They thrive on monotony and are most comfortable when things remain the same. Few dogs appreciate a sudden change in their sleeping quarters or the surprise of a new food in their bowl. The more that can be done to prevent change in a dog's feeding program, the better it will be for both the dog and its owner. Regularity in feeding promotes good appetite, good digestion and regular eliminations. Therefore, the first general consideration to be made when feeding any dog should be the establishment of a regular feeding schedule and should stay that way without being altered.

Puppies have conventionally been fed small portions of their daily diet at frequent intervals during the day. The rationalization behind this is sound, but the frequency of feedings often is too high. Even newborn puppies do quite well when fed only four times daily. Some breeders even reduce this to three times daily, but unless your schedule absolutely prohibits it, a minimum of four feedings should be the limit. The feedings need not be separated exactly six hours apart, but it is desirable to space the feedings as evenly as possible throughout the 24-hour time period. For example, my own schedule usually works out best when I feed around 7:00 A.M., 12:00 Noon, 6:00 P.M., and 1:00 P.M. Yours may be different.

The frequency of feedings should not be reduced to three a day until the puppies are weaned. Whether you are feeding newborn puppies four times daily, or older puppies three times, once the pattern of feedings has been set, it should not be changed, but should occur at the same time every day.

How To Feed The “Outdoor Dog”

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How To Feed The “Outdoor Dog”

The dog that is kept outdoors all of the time, or an exclusive diet of dry food, does not need to be restricted to portion control feeding. These dogs will do quite well when self-fed. One precaution should be pointed out about outdoor pets that are put on self-feeding programs. If they have not been eating dry food, their water consumption will jump considerably when they begin to eat it. A special effort should be made to keep plenty of cool, fresh water before these dogs at all times.

Outdoor dogs require even more water during the summer because a dog's body-cooling processes that depend on water. When outdoor pets are individually fed they can be fed by either ad libitum or portion control. The feeding location should be under some kind of shelter. This will keep the direct sunlight, dust, and dirt to a minimum.

Outdoor feeding locations should also be located away from garbage cans. A back porch, back steps, or corner of the garage may be convenient, but if there are garbage cans nearby such places are unsuitable as dog feeding locations. First, such places allow flies of all descriptions to contaminate the food. Flies are not particularly objectionable to a dog. Most outdoor dogs go through life snapping up and swallowing a fly now and then. Ordinarily this is no cause for alarm, but around garbage cans flies become so numerous in a dog's food that they constitute a disease danger.

With dogs that are fed outdoors, it is of particular importance to pick up any food remaining uneaten after 20 or 30 minutes. Food served at room temperature, then allowed to stand outdoors, quickly warms to temperatures at which contaminating bacteria rapidly multiply. Most dogs do not find the odor of over-ripe dog food unpleasant. Many, in fact, consider the smell quite desirable. The toxins and other waste products produced by bacteria, at the same time they are creating that smell, may have a distinctly detrimental effect on the dog.

There is perhaps more important reason for feeding an outdoor house-pet at the same time and place every day and allowing the food to remain before the dog only 20 or 30 minutes. It is to train your dog to eat only at that time and at that place. lf the dog does not, it learns quickly that it must wait until the next feeding before it gets anything more to eat. Your dog will soon become accustomed to eating at only a specified time, and will come to the specified place every day around that time anticipating its food.

Determining The Amount Of Dog Food Needed For Your Dog

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Determining The Amount Of Dog Food Needed For Your Dog

The pet dog has the same nutritional needs as any other dog. The only difference is the reduced number of calories it uses because of the type of life a dog leads as a household pet. The house dog living exclusively indoors is probably one of the least active animals in the world. More inactive, even, than its owner.

Most of a house dog's time is spent sleeping. Its greatest effort, in many instances, consists of a 10-foot walk from the back door three times a day for eliminations, and a 10-foot walk from the family room couch to its food bowl in the kitchen. As a consequence the house dog is the most overfed and suffers from the greatest overweight problems of all the house-pets.

The dog that spends most of its daylight activities outdoors, but comes in at night, has a higher energy need than the pet kept indoors constantly. Not only does it get more exercise, but it requires extra energy to maintain its body temperature during cooler weather outdoors. Even with such additional requirements it is not uncommon to find indoor/outdoor pets that are fed too much and are borderline overweights.

The dog that stays outdoors all of the time is the pet least likely to develop obesity. As an outdoor dog it enjoys the same, or more exercise as the indoors/outdoors dog. In addition, outdoor dogs have a considerably increased need for energy to maintain body heat.

This need for extra energy for body heat becomes especially high at night and in colder weather. In fact, there are occasional instances where outdoor dogs, when improperly fed, begin to appear just like the undernourished farm hounds of a past era of dog feeding.

Calculation: The quantity of food a house dog needs is determined by the same things that determine the amount of food any other dog eat, which is its optimum body weight and the caloric density of the food it eats. The amount is calculated in the same manner as for other dogs. Determine the number of calories a dog needs daily to maintain its optimum weight. Then divide that number by the number of calories in a pound of food you are feeding. The results will be the quantity of food you should feed, measured in pounds.

4 Important Tips When Feeding Your Dog

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4 Important Tips When Feeding Your Dog

Rule 1: A dog should be fed by the same person at every feeding. This rule is not nearly as important where a couple of house pets are being fed by several members of the same family, as it is where large numbers of dogs are being fed by numerous different kennel personnel. It is particularly applicable where dogs are in strange environments such as boarding kennels, veterinary hospitals, or show arenas. Dogs that have become accustomed to one feeder may exhibit all sorts of erratic eating behavior if that person is changed.

Rule 2: Every dog should have its own food and water container. This precaution is not only sound behavioral psychology, it also is just plain good hygiene. It is especially wise to assign food bowls on an individual basis when your feeding containers are noticeably different from one another. Besides improved feeding technique, certain practical benefits are to be gained from following this rule. In racing stables, for example, where maintenance of body weight is so important, feeding instructions can be written on the bottom or the side of each dog's feeding container, right next to its name or number.


Rule 3: A dog should be fed in the same place every time it is fed. Whether it be the corner of the kitchen, beside the back-door steps, at the rear of a kennel run, or along the left-side wall of a cage, the site where the food container is placed should remain the same every day. In fact, everything that's done with the food container should be identical at each feeding. lf you use a push cart or wagon to carry the tub of food to the dogs, always use the same cart and tub. lf you pre-fill food bowls in the diet kitchen and carry them on the cart, don't decide one day to carry the tub of food on the cart and fill each bowl as you reach the dog. It may have become boring to you, but to your dog it has become the way of life. A change only serves to disrupt his way of life and to create cause for insecurity.

Rule 4: No dog should ever have its food changed without a good reason. Contrary to popular opinion, dogs do not need a change in food from time to time to keep them from growing tired of the same food all the time. Many dogs have lived normal, healthy lives by eating the same food throughout their entire lifetimes. In many instances where a dog owner thinks a dog has gotten sick and tired of a food, the dog has just gotten sick from the food. Not so sick, perhaps, that it really showed, but sick enough to stop eating. When a dog food is deficient, it is not uncommon for a dog eating that food to lose its appetite. Of course, nutritional deficiencies are not the only thing that will cause a dog to lose its appetite.