If you want to know what puppies eat, we'll tell you it all depends on their age. From the moment they are born until they are adults, they are considered puppies, but their diet is not always the same. If you have a puppy, we tell you how to make that feeding transition, from the moment they are born to the feed.
What puppies eat: feeding the newborn dog
When a dog has just been born, it needs to suck on its mother. Breastfeeding is the natural mode of feeding puppies and is the best option, since your mother's milk gives you all the nutrients and fats you need. In addition, colostrum (first breast milk produced after the cubs are born) is essential for their survival and ensuring the start of proper development. Puppies should be nursing for at least six weeks of life, although ideally they will breastfeeding at two months.
In some cases, it may happen that the mother cannot, does not have to or does not want to feed her cubs: by rejection, abandonment, death of the mother or risk of diseases to her babies through her milk. In that case, if you have newborn puppies, you should take care of feeding them yourself, always with a substitute formula of breast milk. It's not cow's milk! The right ones can be found in veterinary clinics and pet products stores.
The transition from milk to solid food
As we have said, the feeding of newborn puppies should be breast milk, or failing that formula, at least until two months of life.
However, from about week 7, we can reduce the amount of milk intakes and introduce, very little by little, solid food. How do you do it? It's what's called puppy porridge. We will have to take a special feed for puppies and, in small quantities, be mixed and crushed with the milk to create porridge. In this way, we introduce into the diet animal proteins and other nutrients and the dog's body is getting used to digesting it.
Ideally, reduce breast milk in one intake and replace it with this porridge. If you used to mintage or drink bottles 5 times a day, now we will reduce them to 4, with 3 of them being breast milk and the fourth of porridge for puppies.
The weaning of the puppy
What do puppies eat after they are weaned? Weaning coincides with the outlet of the puppy's teeth, the mother stops feeding it because:
You are already physically prepared to eat solid foods.
Breast hurts with teeth.
However, they are not yet ready to eat very hard foods, so it is important that the change is progressive. It's the porridge we mentioned earlier.
When 8 weeks old (2 months), the dog already has his teeth ready to eat solids. Depending on the breed and strength of the dog, it could be ready to eat the feed as is, or need to be moistened a little to soften it, which can be done with some mineral water or formula.
However, milk intake at this time would be reduced to that case. At 8 weeks of life the puppy should stop basing its diet on its mother's milk and be independent. Gradually, in just a few weeks at most, the puppy will be able to eat solid food without softening.
You know what puppies eat! Remember that, once it is time to choose the feed, you must choose one of the highest possible and special qualities for puppies, since these have the nutrients they need to grow. As time goes on, it will be necessary to change the diet at each stage of your life to adapt it.