This page was added to help any one that has a litter to rear with out any knowledge
Of what they are about to start, we do not make any claim that our method is best
All written from personal views and experience only
I have no vetianary qualifications

Our reason for hand rearing a litter was the death of the mother

I have learnt the hard way
When our Girl could not keep her own food down after having her litter
She was not eating so had no goodness in her milk to pass on to her pups
We started feeding the litter at two days old & sadly continued until weaning stared at 21 days old
She did have the colostrum, this contains protection vital for the new born pup’s survival
It was one of the most difficult tasks I have ever taken on at a time when we were so upset and anxious about the health of our bitch
Mum was admitted to hospital for an investigation as to what was wrong with her
After three operations in an attempt to save her she was put to sleep
(we have added Armani’s story to chapter 3 of the about us page)

Reason two could be mastitis
This is an infection in the milk, and both the mum and the puppies are in danger if this should happen, seek help from the vet as soon as you suspect a problem
A bitch with mastitis may be unable to carry on with feeding her litter
so you will need to take over
How we prevent Mastitis

Prevention being better than cure, this is what we do
Feel the milk sacks daily they will feel firm but not hard when all is well
They should feel warm but not hot, look pink and not red
When one starts to feel harder than the other the pups will avoid this teat as it will be harder for them to start the flow of milk, so we take the biggest pup away from mum for an hour or so, place a warm flannel on the affected teat and gently express a little milk, place the hungry pup on the teat once the puppy has had a good fill and the teat is now softer the others will start to use this nipple again
With daily checks we have avoided Mastitis, but we have stepped in and used this method several times

Reason three failure for a bitch to accept her puppies
This can happen when a first time mother needs a caesarean
The first litter we had, we followed advice from an old dog book
It said place the puppies in a warm box during the birth, as the whelping box is cold and wet and the pups are in danger from the mother standing on them during delivery of the rest of the litter
When labour was over we gave mum the pups to feed, she was over whelmed to see all 6 puppies ,she would except three so we had to keep changing them around so she was feeding them all , after a few days she would feed them all together
From then on we leave the pups with mum during whelping
The pups suckling calms mum & stimulates the new born puppies and brings on more contractions; we just keep the whelping box as dry as possible and the room warm

We had a call late one evening from a local lady that had used our stud dog
The bitch had eight healthy pups and a natural birth, mum would not have them near her she was growling every time they tried to let them feed
The litter was taken away as she gave birth then she was presented with her litter
When the labour was over, the same mistake we made with our first litter
We got out of bed a went round to see if we could help!
The bitch was terrified of her pups; it took a muzzle and two men to lay her over
We put the pups on her nipples within minutes she was calm and the hungry puppies were suckling, after 48 hrs she was cleaning them and feeding without the need for the muzzle, 48 hrs hard work is much better than 21 days feeding every two hours day and night at the start things looked bad however we added this to let anybody in the same situation to give the bitch as chance to succeed you can give up too easy!

Reason number four
It can take as long as 48hours for a bitches milk to come
As the pups start to get a taste for the milk they can get very noisy
Some people step in far too quickly
If you give them milk at this point her milk flow may not ever satisfy her litter
Normally within a few hours of this restless period things will settle down

Reason five the bitch has a large litter
The strongest pups gain weight faster then the smaller ones
What we do in this case is make sure the weaker pups are put to a big back teat when the other pups are sleeping, the little ones can exhaust them selves and fall asleep without feeding properly, we have even set our alarm clock during the night to put a small puppy to a spare teat, we have found this the best way to intervene
Other people step in and bottle feed, however mother’s milk is best & giving formula
Milk can upset their tummies, not a risk we are prepared to take
Mum is fed extra food not the puppies, a bitch feeding a large litter is very hungry
Weaning is started a little earlier, when the litter is large

We have had 9 litters over a 20 year period
3 have been caesarean births
We have had to raise a litter with out mum from day one

Even though we have experienced all the above we still find it a joy and a pleasure Having a litter of puppies in our home
things do not always go as you hope

Anybody thinking about having a litter for profit may be should think again
It can be very hard work that takes time and dedication to succeed



When we were left with no option other than to try to hand feed a litter,all of a sudden we had lots of questions and who could we ask? we always buy in milk and have feeding bottles in the house when expecting a litter,just incase
the puppies were just 10oz


when we looked on the tin to try and find out how much to feed there were no guide lines to follow,very helpful! I suppose each breed needs different amounts so it is hard to estimate.
The bottles were standard type from our local pet shop, and totally useless in our opinion you make your own holes in the teats but what size? Every body told us the same do not let milk go on the puppies lungs or you will kill them, but nobody said how to avoid this
so if we made the holes to big the pups may choke to small and they did'nt want to suck on them as they did'nt know the milk was in them
for some strange reason, may be women's intuition ?I had ordered glass banana shape bottles before the litter were born that had a hole at one end so you could control the milk flow
they were expensive but I couldn't get on with them either the pups took the milk so fast and then brought it back up.
It was a total nightmare how much do I feed them? Have I got the best formula milk? How the hell can I get the milk in them safely
I wish I had the answers, and time to find out but the puppies were hungry I had to give it a go
With five hungry puppies to feed & not a clue how much to give them? I made up the tinned puppy milk Lactol that I had here in the case of an emergency
the bottles worried me as I couldn't see how much milk they had in their mouths at one time, so scared of getting milk on their lungs
I had some 1ml syringes that I use for the wormer,I gave it a go

The syringes gave me control of the flow as I dropped the milk on the tongues & they could taste it the little tongues popped out ready for more
on the first feed I gave them 1lm each .we talked to the vet and realised 4ml was what they should be having


Hoping I was feeding them the right feed I started to make a few phone calls
1 lady said goats milk
another said tinned condensed milk
I received an email from a breeder that makes her own milk the recipe it included honey and egg yolk among other things
may be years ago the above was all you could use,but now you can get many brands of tinned formular milk specially for feeding puppies, so we decided a special milk such as Lactol was best
The pups were getting used to digesting the lactol I was using,It seemed foolish to keep trying different things the change from mothers milk to formula was unavoidable, so I kept them on Lactol right the way through
So we had chosen the Brand of Milk
The syringe worked best for us
The vet's advice was 4ml for each pup every two hours day and night
each puppy was given a number to be sure we spaced the feeds correctly
we made a chart feeding started at 12am with puppy number1, so the next feed was due to start at 2am
the feeds took up to an hour so you had 6O minutes before it all started again
we asked the vet how often they need a poo because with out our help they were unable to go
The vets said three or four times a day but we found just like bottle feed human babies they only went once a day,we need to stimulate them with cotton wool and used a cotton bud to apply ky jelly to the anus
they did lots once they started to go
you need to stimulate the pup to wee we did this before and after each feed


they get wind just like human babies we rubbed their backs and waited for a burp


The pups were not gaining weight ,we used digital kitchen scales to weigh them daily
we increased the quantity slowly ,at 14 days old they were having 10ml each feed
we decided at two weeks to take them for a vet check
the pups were having more poo's and quite loose, a sample was sent to the lab in case they puppies had a bug
The vet was happy with them, we were prescribed a wormer to give over a three day period
we started this on day 16-19 the puppies became very ill they had diarrhoea so bad that they became dehydrated
the diarrhoea burnt the skin they has blisters on the legs on bellys ,one puppy lost hair in his head when one of the other had diarrhoea on his head
The pups smelt like perm lotion so we gave them a bath
This is not recomended but the pups skin became so sore, we had no option


applied a percribed barrier cream to the legs and belly's


We had come this far it was day 19, focused on getting the pups to 21 days old as lapping and weaning can start from this point
Day 19 was terrible they became very dehydrated ,we were prescribed lectade this helps get extra fluid in them
but they hated it, we must get it in them or they will die
they became limp, the gums were pale,they felt clammy in our hands
we had worked so hard surely we were not going to lose them ?
their mum Armani had been put to sleep just a few days before, it was all too much to take I have never felt so upset in my life
My cousin was doing the night shift with her daughter ,we went to bed totally exhausted ,we left her with the litter with instructions to do her best to get the fluid in them
Sadly we were woken up in the night with news that Jo thought we were loosing them fluid had gone into the lungs my fear from day 1
A soon as it was light we called the vet and took them to the surgery
One little boy was gasping for breath he reminded me of a gold fish that comes to the top of the water a sight I will never forget
He was put to sleep, the others were looked at but the vet asked me if I wanted to carry on ? he warned me that we may lose them all
synulox drop were prescribed and we came home with the 4 remanining pups
Day 20 we started the medication & attempted to feed the pups three of them were having trouble breathing ,two were almost no longer with us they were not interested in the milk
We made a tuff decision try with the two strongest pups and place the other two in a warm box and let nature take its course
After 10 minutes I got them out as I just would not give up
they only were taking 1ml at a time but at least it was something
After a few hours we got them to take a little more,within 24hrs they were no longer dehydrated
However three of the four had very rattling sound coming from their chests,snotty noses & finding it hard to breathe,but the gums had more colour & no longer clammy
We were warned by other breeders that if they get fluid on the lungs they will die
But if you give antibiotics as we did just in time they have a chance
we started weaning with a little baby rice


On day 21 they were lapping


we soaked dry complete puppy food in water & they were eating at last
They were no longer needing help to go to the toilet


Now three weeks old & about half the weight of a normal litter, we were feeding them every three hours now
Still very concerned as we were clearing green from the noses every time we fed them
our vet said they may pull through some do and some don't
not the news we wanted to hear
All we could do is try ,they go so messy they all needed a wash after feeding


We just hoped that all our hard work would be rewarded & they would soon gain weight and fight the chest infection
We thought they would need to be with us much longer than a normal litter
under normal circumstances our pups are ready around seven/eight weeks old
at four and a half weeks we stopped in symulox as they seemed much better
from this point on the weight gain really took off
At seven weeks old they were fat healthy out going pups more than ready to start life in their new homes
we did keep them until nearly eight weeks old & found it hard to say goodbye
we know the people well that are having them so we will be able to watch them develop and grow
pictures at 8 weeks old

The Boy's Cuba & Buster

The bitches Lacey & Roxie

I hope I never have to hand rear a litter again!
If I did I would not worm them at two weeks old, we were doing ok up until this point
A total novice like me can do it , but it is very hard emotionally & doing with out sleep for three weeks is terrible
with out help from my friends and family I could not of seen this through
We have added this page to encourage any body that finds themselves in a simular situation
We hope that you are as lucky as we were and get your puppies through this most difficult start
We would not give up however bad is seemed as the puppies were all we had left Of their mum Our beautiful Armani


Buster was a nightmare to feed it give me so much pleasue to see him on his first holiday enjoying the seaside

we are sure Armani would be proud