learning ... to eat

Once the puppies' eyes have all opened and they can hear by around 14 days or so, the next thing is to start thinking about trying them on actual food.

By 2.5 weeks, one or two puppies have already discovered the water bowl... usually by accident, obviously.  As they lurch around the box, one by one they tumble face-first into the water bowl and come up sputtering.  There is always a brief period around this time when I'm too nervous to leave the water bowl unsupervised in the box.  For a day or two the puppies are big and strong enough to fall into the water bowl but I'm not certain they would be able to get themselves out of trouble.  By the time they are 3 weeks all that worry is past.  Yes, they still fall face-first into the water (and tail- or paw-first sometimes too), but they are strong enough to hoick themselves out if necessary. 

Then it's time to get them started on solid food.  The weaning puppy definition of "solid" is rather loose, mind you (so to speak...).  Their first "solid" food comes in the form of watery puppy porridge.  I use this one from Fit and Fertile.  As they get more adept at eating, I serve up gradually thicker porridge each day.  Then somewhere along the line I start introducing other things too: puppy kibble soaked in warm puppy milk until soft, raw meat paste, eggs scrambled into a warm custard with goat's milk, and so on.

So far, almost a week into the porridge adventure, I'm having mixed results.  Predictably, Mini and Tito usually dive right in as soon as the plate appears.   In every litter there is always one puppy who sticks both front paws into the plate, claiming it for him (her) alone, and this time it is Mini.  Of course.  Fiia and Tuulen are at similar stages of success with eating.  Sometimes they are more interested than other times; sometimes they just can't be bothered and, frankly, it all seems a bit too much like hard work.  They would far rather wait for mum to turn up and switch on the milk faucets.  Sox is more or less uninterested in the plate of porridge.  He likes to lick it from my fingers, but doesn't really want to have to lap it from the plate.  Actually, he would far rather spend his time distracting those of his siblings who actually do want to eat.

Apart from encouraging each puppy to eat by scooping porridge onto my finger for them to lick, my job also includes trying to keep any puppies from jumping (Mini) or falling (Tito) into the plate.  And also to stop Sox from pouncing on and body-checking those puppies who are trying to eat.  Tail flicking with mischief, he charges straight at the diner, ramming into them and sending them flying - usually into the plate.  It's quite amusing to watch, but does create a terrible mess and doesn't help anyone either (a) get a meal or (b) learn to eat.

I may capture it on video one day.  In the meantime, here are some eating puppies.

Early attempt - Mini & Tito are right in there

There goes the paw...

Tuulen tries that technique for himself.

Mini eating Taito fashion - lying down

Fiia tucking in when there's no competition

Hard work!

"Is it any wonder I don't like the plate?  Look at the mess I'm in!"

Tito has no such qualms

It's no surprise that the puppies are almost constantly covered in dried porridge at this stage.  You can see it on Tuulen's head in his 3-week portrait and on most puppies in most photos taken around this time.  In fact, you can see above that tails, heads and even the backs of necks are positively crunchy.  No wonder they spend so much time chewing on each other.

Post-breakfast game of bitey-face