I recently had a female whelp a litter of 5 puppies. For those of you with larger breeds you might consider this a small or your usual sized litter, but for a toy breed, Pomeranian in this case, this is A LOT of puppies. Mom has been doing a pretty good job of taking care of them and fortunately she was in milk when the litter came. Of the 5 puppies I did intervene early-on and just topped-up the smallest puppy to ensure he would not get behind his slightly larger litter mates (0.5 to 1 oz larger).
That got me thinking about milk replacers and what you should be using to supplement puppies. Milk replacements should provide neonates with calories, macronutrients like protein, fat and carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals. Despite claims, there are no milk replacers that match their mother’s milk. While mother’s milk is best there will be times you will need to supplement.
You need to start with a balanced product so make sure you are using a milk replacer designed for puppies, make sure it is not for any other animal. While goat’s milk is more similar to dog milk than cow’s is, on its own goat milk is not a suitable supplement for puppies as it does not meet their nutritional needs.
My typical go-to for milk replacer is the Dogzyme’s Puppy-Bac. It dissolves readily in water and is very palatable for puppies when bottle feeding. Its ease of preparation also makes it a great choice for tube feeding. Of the milk replacers we sell at The Breeder’s Cupboard it is the lowest in calories per ml.
Similar in nutritional content to the Dogzyme’s formula we have Breeder's Edge Foster Care GM which can be fed to puppies as well as kittens. This is a goat milk based formula that is easy to digest. I also always have Dogzyme’s Puppy Support on hand. It is great for giving a boost to post C-section puppies as it has pre and probiotics, electrolytes, colostrum and other vitamins and minerals that can give neonates a boost during weakness or compromised times of stress. Puppy Support can be given every 4 hours for the first 24 hours when a puppy in fading/in crisis. After that we recommend the daily dosing.
Other milk replacer formula’s we have available at The Breeder’s Cupboard include Breeders Edge Foster Care milk replacer in puppy and kitten formulas. These versions are more calorie dense and would be suitable for litters where there is a need for more calories per ml.
Lastly, similar to the Breeders Edge product line we also carry Shelter’s Choice milk replacer which also has a kitten and puppy variety.
With young neonates I will tube-feed to supplement puppies but by the time their eyes have opened it can become difficult to insert a tube. I do transition over to bottle feeding when my puppies get larger. We have several nipple options for syringe feeding but I find Karen Cusick’s Amazing Nursing nipples to work the best. The soft silicon nipples come in a variety of shapes and sizes and are meant to be used with a vented Dr Browns baby bottle which we include in the kit with the nipple. For my Pomeranians I use the small short tip and have had success supplementing puppies. If you are uncertain what size to order please reach out so we can advise you on what will work best with your litter.
To learn about tube feeding check out this prior blog post. Click here to purchase tubes and syringes and here to for the Amazing Nursing Nipple and bottles.
As always, if we can assist you in any way, please reach out to the team at 587-988-2406.
written by Fotina Karavas