Hand Rearing Puppies - PDSA

Feeding a newborn puppy

What to feed

Newborn puppies need artificial milk formula specifically for puppies, this is available from most vets and reputable pet shops. Kitten/puppy milk from the supermarket is not suitable. Cow’s milk is also unsuitable.

Things you’ll need

• Artificial milk formula specifically for puppies (available from vets or good pet shops)
• A puppy feeding kit (available from vets or good pet shops) - human baby bottles aren’t suitable, they are too big and deliver too much milk.
• Sterilising tablets or solution (available from chemists)
• Cotton wool
• 2ml syringes
• Weighing scales.

When and how much

Your milk formula packaging will have an instruction chart, telling you how much and how regularly to feed. Up to seven days old, puppies normally feed every two hours, including through the night. After the first week, you can start gradually extending the time between milk feeds and at 4 weeks you can start introducing puppy food. At six weeks of age, your puppies should be fully weaned. See our rough guide bellow:

Week 1	Milk feed every 2 hours
Week 2	Milk feed every 3 hours
Week 3	Milk feed every 3 hours
Week 4	Milk feed every 4-6 hours, offer a saucer of water and softened puppy food for lapping.
Week 5	Wet puppy food, fresh water to drink. Milk down to lap and top up bottle feeds if necessary.
Week 6	Fully weaned off milk, feed a complete puppy food and water.

*always refer to formula milk instructions

Bottle preparation

It’s extremely important to make sure your feeding bottles stay clean, hand reared puppies don’t receive normal antibody protection from their mother’s milk, which makes them vulnerable to getting ill.

Wash all bottles and teats after each feed using warm soapy water and a bottlebrush, Rinse them well afterwards. After washing the bottles, sterilise them using a sterilising solution or tablet from any chemist. Leave them in the sterilising solution for the correct time and flick off any excess solution before feeding your puppies.

Milk preparation

Artificial milk formula usually comes as a powder that needs mixing with warm water.

• Wash your hands.
• Clean your preparation surface.
• Boil some fresh water.
• Using a thermometer, allow the water to cool to the correct temperature (find this in the formula milk instructions). The correct temperature allows the milk powder to dissolve properly with no clumps.
• Carefully measure out the powder and the correct amount of water, using a measuring cup or scales. If you use a measuring cup, make sure you level the powder with the flat edge of a knife to ensure you don’t put too much in.
• Once the milk is prepared, test it on the underside of your wrist to make sure that it’s a comfortable temperature for your puppies.

Bottle feeding

A long as your puppies have a strong suck, they can be bottle-fed.

• Hold or put your puppy in a natural feeding position, as if they were feeding from their mother. The natural feeding position for a puppy is on their belly. Feeding a puppy on its back could cause them to breath in the milk.
• Present the bottle teat to them and allow them to suck.
• Give them regular breaks if they try to detach, otherwise let them suck until them seem full.
• If you see any bubbles of milk coming out of your puppy’s nose, stop feeding and wipe them clean. This usually indicates that the milk has gone down into the lungs or up into their nose. Wait to make sure they are breathing OK before trying again, a bit slower and in the correct feeding position.

Top tip: Make sure that there are holes in the end of the bottle teats (some come without!). If the teat you are using has no holes, use a pin to prick a few into the end of it. Milk should come out comfortably with a light suck, if the holes are too small your puppy may swallow air instead of milk, if they are too big the milk may come out too quickly.

Syringe feeding

If your puppy is struggling to feed from a bottle, you may need to feed them with a syringe until they are strong enough to suck. Syringe feeding needs to be done very carefully because your puppy has no control over how much milk they get.

• Hold your puppy in the position that they would be in if they were feeding from their mother.
• Drip small amounts of milk onto their tongue and let them swallow it.
• If necessary, encourage your puppy to swallow by gently massaging their throat.
• Be very careful not to force milk into your puppy because they may choke.