HAND REARING PUPPIES

Has anyone ever had to help there dog out and hand rear the puppies?

Has anyone got any stories about hand rearing their pups?

Here are some general rules for bottle feeding puppies:
1.Always boil your water before using - allow time to cool.
2.Burp your pups after feeding.
3.A pup may have little bubbles by his mouth but there should not be milk running out of his mouth.
4.When the bottle is held upside down the milk should drip out - NOT FLOW OUT in a stream - pups that get milk in their lungs will get pneumonia and more than likely die.
5.Calorie intake needs to be adjusted according to growth of puppies. A general rule of thumb (unless someone has a better idea) is 1 CC per OZ. of body weight every 3 hours.
6.You must have an accurate scale to weigh pups if you are going to get the best success. Use a kitchen food scale. The ones with grams is what we use in our kennel. It is easy to see any weight gain or loss. Keep a record that you can easily refer to.

we hand reared a litter of 10 rotties because the mother had mastitis very hard work every 2 hrs
I would advise people to encourage the mother to feed her pups unless she can not
I would do it all again tomorrow if i had to but it is better all round for nature to take its course

which bitch was it that got the mastitis?

Jasmin

whats that?

mastitis is an infection of the milk ducts , which is very sore it is a blocked milk duct , and causing the breast till swell up ,

Mothers worst night mare because you can't feed you little uns

it is rather nasty and very uncomfortable and it is very hard work for the person who has to feed the pups!

Well I wouldn't wish it on anyone animal or human,

i agree me neither!

I speak 1st hand & Iwouldnt either

how long ago was it that jasmin had mastitis? how was she with the last litter, any problems there?

It was last year all the puppies were feeding off the other 6 nipples and she got it really bad in the back one poor love only has 7 nipples and she had 10 babies so it clogged up and turned into mastitis we did try to move them around but didnt want to interfere to much