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Care for puppies after birth or how to care for very small puppies
First of all, you need to allocate a special place where your mother will be with her babies. You must equip it with everything you need, make a soft warm bed, prepare an electric heating pad, it can be used to warm the puppies, an electric scale for weighing the puppies, and a dog milk replacer, in case milk is not enough, or the puppies are so weak that they will not be able to suck on their own milk and will have to drink them from a syringe with a milk substitute.
From the first days of life, blind and deaf puppies can suck milk, producing pushing movements with front and back paws, these actions create a massage of the nipples and stimulate the production of milk. It is very important that the first feeding of puppies is colostrum. This is the first portion of milk that is produced in the dog for the first 3-5 days, the colostrum has unique qualities, this milk contains nutrients and immunoglobulins that protect the weak puppy organisms from various infections.
The sucking reflex is fixed from birth, this is not necessary to teach puppies. However, there are situations when puppies are so weak that I can not suck on my own or stick to the nipple. Then you need to help, hold the puppy, open his mouth and put the nipple in your mouth, you must first massage the dog’s mammary glands, so that the colostrum is allocated colostrum. The smell of colostrum will provoke a suckling reflex in a puppy. If the puppies are very weak and unable to suck on their own, then they will have to feed them from the syringe every 2 hours with a substitute for canine milk. The first volumes of feeding from the syringe are 0.5-1 ml of milk, after reaching a two-week period, the puppy can consume 5-10 ml of milk or a milk substitute.
It is very important to monitor the weight of babies. Starting from the second day of life, puppies need to be weighed daily, they must add weight daily. If this does not happen, then the puppies receive insufficient nutrition, the mother does not have enough milk and you need to supplement them with milk or a substitute from the syringe.
Watch for the breasts of the dog, with excessive amounts of milk, it can develop mastitis, which can be determined by swollen, hard and painful glands, they are hot and have a knobby surface. At the first signs of mastitis, it is necessary to lubricate these mastitis-affected glands with camphor oil and perform gentle massage to get rid of stagnant phenomena in the mammary gland. If this does not help, be sure to contact your veterinarian!
Separately, care must be taken to maintain the heat at the location of the puppies. Newborn puppies can not control their body temperature, they are susceptible to hypothermia. Puppies warm their body with their mother, and puppies warm each other, being in close contact. During the period when the mother is absent on the spot, she went for a walk or went to the feeding to provide the puppies with additional heating, for this you need to use an electric heating pad.
Care for newborn puppies requires constant examination. On the 7-10th day it is necessary to start cutting the claws to puppies, quite a bit, only sharp hooks. Cut your claws once a week. This must be done so that the puppies do not injure the delicate skin of the mammary glands of the dog-mother with its claws.
Also it is necessary to watch especially carefully that there is no inflammation of the stump of the navel in puppies. To do this, grease the belly button twice a day in the morning and evening.
As puppies grow, they become more active, if at first they just sleep and eat, then from the third week of life the puppies begin to walk actively, defecate themselves, play and fight with their brothers and sisters.
In the fourth week the first teeth appear in the puppies, which means that the time has come for supplementary feeding. Gradually the share of mother’s milk in the puppy’s diet will decrease, milk will be replaced by other food.
The transition from milk to other products should be done gradually, it is necessary to monitor the condition of the puppies. If the puppies are still weak do not hurry to translate them to another food. Gradual change of diet should be carried out in stages, first add one additional food per day, so that the puppy is used, look at his reaction, then twice a day, then three, four, five, six until the mother’s milk is completely replaced.
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How to feed a puppy
Grow puppies, feeding, care – this is a very important issue, there are probably two options. Either you independently cook food for your pets, or you buy ready-made dry or wet food.
Combine these types of food can not, because it will cause a digestive disorder. In addition, it is likely that feeding both ready-made food and additional food will cause excess vitamins and minerals in the puppy’s diet, which in turn will negatively affect the development of growing organisms.
The advantage of ready-made food is that it is developed by specialists taking into account all the needs of the puppy in the diet. In ready-made foods, a combination of proteins, fats, carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals is optimally selected, and omega-3 fatty acids are also present, which ensure the normal development of vision and the nervous system.
But the food should be chosen not by the economy class, but by the super-premium class. Only supreme premium foods contain natural products, they lack chemicals, dyes and GMOs. Moreover, in a wide range of feeds, you can find a variety of feeds for dogs of different ages, the degree of activity of the pet’s lifestyle, and they take into account the need for dieting, if the pet has certain diseases.
As a rule, small puppies are fed 4-6 times a day for a year, then the number of feedings is reduced and by the year it reaches 1-2 times a day.
How to care for a 1 month old puppy
Care for a month-old puppy has its own characteristics. Since in 2 months the first vaccination is done, at the age of one and a half months of the pups, it is necessary to flaunt. It is important to make sure that the puppy is swallowed, not spit out the medicine. Very important dosage, which is calculated based on the exact weight, size and age of the puppy. A weak dosage will not bring the desired effect, and excessive dosage can cause poisoning or even the death of the puppy. Therefore, read the instructions well, weigh the puppy, calculate the dosage and again check the correctness of your calculations.
Place for puppy toilet
Puppy 1 month, care in this period is also in developing the skill of walking to the toilet in a certain place. Puppies do not defecate in the same place where they eat. Therefore, allocate a special place for the toilet away from the bowls with food, put a newspaper or diaper there. Going to the toilet in this place, the puppies will be guided by the smell and will get used to going to the toilet at a certain place.
Since the age of 45 days, puppies need more attention from you. With them you need to play more, communicate. At this age, the character begins to manifest itself, the leaders, more active or calmer puppies are revealed. This is a very important period, at this time the nervous system is formed, the psyche of the puppy, which depends not only on the congenital genes, but also on the experience of the animal’s communication with the person. There is a socialization of animals.
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Care and maintenance of puppies largely determine the health of dogs in adulthood.
To care for the puppy in the house you will need to organize a place for his sleep and feeding. Buy a dog carrier. Take it on the growth, taking into account the future size of the maturing puppy. You need to carry the puppy to the veterinary clinic for vaccination and scheduled examinations more than once.
Buy bowls for food and water. Thoroughly wash them, change the water in a bowl, it must be necessarily fresh. Choose a cozy bed for sleeping. Ask the breeder to bring a bedding with the smell of the puppy’s mom, so the puppy will be easier to adapt in a new place. Remember, the process of moving to a new place and separation from mom is a stress for the animal, try to make the process of getting the puppy to your house as comfortable as possible.
Specify with what food your puppy fed from the breeder, ask about the mode of feeding and the volume of the portion. Buy a puppy various toys and balls, choose products from safe materials, without small details that the puppy can swallow.
Find out if the puppy is accustomed to the toilet. Remember that it is possible to take out a puppy for a walk only after all the vaccinations have been made and the quarantine has been kept.
Equip a special place in the apartment where the puppy will be able to cope with the need, put a diaper or newspapers there. You can purchase a special tray. Encourage the puppy to go to a special diaper, wherever he is at this moment, spread out the diapers in different places in the house. Then lay a sheet on the tray. So it will be easier for him to understand what is required of him. Unfortunately, even if the puppy goes to the toilet in one particular place – this does not mean that he does not make a puddle elsewhere. Therefore, at this time it is better to remove the carpets in the apartment and close the furniture.