OK first litter here, out of a rescue dog, so I pretty much have no clue what I'm doing. I have 4 large breed puppies (no clue what they are but I expect them to be about 70 lb adults).

I started the pups off at 3.5 weeks with Ed's homemade puppy formula which the puppies liked. Then I added raw hamburger and ground chicken which they also liked.

Due to high cost and unable to find a supplier (I couldn't even find chicken necks at any local grocery store) I started giving them Puppy Wellness, at first I put it in a blender with their puppy formula and later started soaking in water.

The pups turned 6 weeks old on Wednesday Oct 10 (they were born Aug 29). Not only do they not seem to like the soaked kibble, their stools are huge, frequent and sometimes noisy (sounds like little firecrackers when they poop.) The main thing I am worred about is they don't really eat it. I am throwing out most of what I give them (and Wellness is quite expensive). I am starting to switch them to Innova Puppy in case it's the food. I offered them their food this morning and they hardly looked at it. They will eat a little of it eventually, and will take individual kibbles if I hand feed it to them, but they don't seem very interested. They get really excited when I let their mom in to feed them and act like they are starving. Their mom only lets them nurse for a little while. I am worried they are not getting enough food.

What can I do? Should I try canned? The pups are 6 weeks and weigh 11.5 lbs.

Edit: oh one other thing, the puppies eat their own stools. They see their mom doing it and they do it too. I'm not sure if they all do it or only one of them does it. Is this normal and could this be a reason they are not hungry?

Are they steadily gaining weight? Bright eyes, energetic and not straining when they are "pooping"? If they are gaining weight at an acceptable rate, then maybe you are feeding too much......

Our GSP, would start to wean her own pups at about 5 weeks, she would still feed them, sometimes regurgitating a meal for them as well. And we never had issues with the pups not eating the food that was put out.

Our Chocolate Lab, she would want to keep her "kids" forever and she would not wean them. We would have to keep her away, only letting her feed them once or twice daily and then back that off as well, so that the pups would eat more of the food that was being put out for them.

My puppies always act like they're starving when I put the mom in for a scheduled nursing when I'm weaning them.
Your pups are big enough you shouldn't need to soften their food. My 2 lb pups ate dry food just fine back before I switched to raw.
Only put down what they will eat in one feeding, not what you think they should be eating. If they quickly finish what you put out and look for more then give them a little more. In a couple of days you should have a pretty good idea of the amounts to feed.
Feed them the dry food before you put mom in, that way they won't have their bellies full of milk and they will be more inclined to eat the dry food. You could also give them some yogurt to get their gut flora going since it sounds like you have been changing their food some.
If the poop is loose they may need to be wormed, pyrantel/Nemex is safe (from pet supply stores). They next thing to try would be 10 days of albon (from the vet) for coccidea. If the poop is still loose it may be giardia which you can treat with a 3 day coarse of double dose fenbendazol/panacure wormer. You can do the 3 day panacur to start with, to get any worms and giardia if it's there.
I also wean my pups according to the almanac. The ideal days right now are the 15th through the 24th. I used to think it was hog-wash, but I weaned a litter on a breast day and the mom barked, howled, scratched and chewed on the kennel door for three weeks, and the pups had been gone by the second week. My pups weaned on days not involving the head down to the lower torso act like they don't miss mom at all. The same mom with her next litter weaned on an appropriate day went about her business and might have checked at the kennel door two or three times and then promptly left to go rabbit hunting.
If the pups are nice and fat and well hydrated them I wouldn't worry about them.

Well I feel better, thanks Carol and Debbie. I guess I worry too much since I don't really know anything about puppies.

I have been keeping the pups and mom in the same room but the pups in the ex-pen and the mom outside the ex-pen. I have been feeding them first while i let mom outside, give them about 15 minutes before I remove the food (I don't remove it if they are actually eating it), then I put mom in with them to nurse.

I didn't know I could feed them straight kibble. They seem so small and young to me!

I have been worming them every two weeks since the age of 2 weeks old. Today is actually worming day. I didn't think of that being the cause of the loose stools. Today one of the pups had a formed stool in a brownish-yellow puddle of watery stuff. It happened twice.

Debbie, by the almanac, do you mean there should be a certain day where I no longer allow the puppies access to their mom at all? I was kind of planning to let her have the access she wanted until they were gone. I do have to keep this litter longer because they will be neutered before going to their new homes.

 Quote: angela burrell

I didn't know I could feed them straight kibble. They seem so small and young to me!


Debbie, by the almanac, do you mean there should be a certain day where I no longer allow the puppies access to their mom at all?

11 lb is HUGE! I'm used to 2-4 lb pups at 6 and 8 weeks, I rarely gave mine softened kibble. One pound pups got canned food. Now I just mince the chicken backs for them. If the kibble bits are huge (for these pups that would be 3/4-1" dia., which is unlikely) they might have to work a bit to eat it, but they still should be alright.

With the weaning you can wait as long as you want, I just like to time the day that I take mom completely away with the good almanac days each month. The Novembers days I would wean on are the 6th through the 20th. By then I bet mom will be about sick of them anyway.
How old will they be when they are neutered? I also time any surgeries by the almanac (not the same days as the weaning). There are fewer complications and they heal faster.

I got my calendar from my vet, I'm trying to find a good free almanac calender online, when I do I'll post it. I found a "Farmers Almanac Downloadable Best Days Chart" for $4 that looks like it might be the same as my paper calendar.

LOL, I guess everything is relative. I'm used to adult dogs who are 50+ pounds, haven't had a puppy in a long time. The puppies mom is 45 lbs and I think she is small.

I have never heard about this almanac thing (well a farmer's almanac, sure). I don't have a date scheduled for neutering yet. None of the puppies have homes to go to yet, once they have homes then I will see about the surgery. I'll have to get back to you on that one.

Starbuck was about 5.5 pounds at 7 weeks and 9.5 pounds at 9 weeks.

Her mom was 23 1/2" at the shoulder and 65 pounds. So I expect her to be about the same.

Not that it answers your question, but 11.5 at 6 weeks does seem big.

If you think thats big, when I got my pup at 10 weeks he weighed 24.6 lbs.! But then his dam weighs around 100 and his sire is 115, so I expect him to be large. For a 45 lb. mom, that seems huge! The dad must be large. I, like Keith know that doesn't help. Keep trying with the kibble, They will start to eat it, they won't starve themselves.