Here’s the fact puppies are those cute little creatures that are hard to handle. It becomes more challenging when you’re a first-time owner. 4 weeks is the age when the diet starts getting complicated. Your puppy has been having mother milk or milk replacement formula up till now. But, from onwards, puppies start weaning.
The age of 4 weeks is when the beginners or even the experienced parents make dietary mistakes. We know you want the best for your puppy so fasten your seat belts to avoid bumping into these blunders and learn how to handle the 4-week-old puppy like a pro.
You can use a tracking number service to keep your dog’s solid food purchases quick and less complicated. So, without further discussion, let’s hop into the article.
What Are the Components of a 4-Week-Old Puppy’s Diet?
Let’s hop into the article by discussing 2 significant components that everybody takes during this phase.
- Milk
- Solid Puppy Food.
At the age of 3-5 weeks, all puppies are dependent on the milk. However, as time goes by, the caloric requirements rises as well, demanding to have proper 4 meals of solid food a day. Let’s look at those mentioned earlier dietary components in depth-first.
Milk
Here’s the fact there is nothing better than mother’s milk for your puppy. Its helps in enhancing the puppy weak immune system. Moreover, Dr. Kristy Conn says mother’s milk is a stupendous source to receive antibodies and nutrients.
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However, if the mother is not present, the best alternative would be milk replacement formula. You must be questioning how much amount would go best for 4 weeks old puppy?
Well, Craigie Burn Animal Hospital suggests that 22 ml of milk replacement formula per 100ng of body weight is suitable for 4 week old puppy. Now, suppose your puppy is 300 g, then you should feed 3*22= 66 ml.
Many puppy like to drink from bottles. In this regard buy those fancy bottles or try to feed on a baby bottle. You can also use a bowl but you have to try it out to know better.
Solid Food
Do you wonder what solid food is beneficial and can be fed to the 4-week-old puppy? You can go with this reliable recipe as follows:
- Add up 1 equal part of puppy food along with milk and mix the mixture well. Blend the resulting mixture by hand or in a shaker until it reaches runny consistency.
- Pour off your mix into the bowl or onto the baking paper sheet.
Keep in mind that you should need to be patient in this entire process as puppies are pretty inept. Maybe they will run into their food resulting in a huge mess. It is a good idea to use an excellent cleanable space such as the bathtub.
How to Transition Completely to Solid Food
According to experts, weaning is not an overnight process, so you should be persistent with your dog. Begin with a single solid meal by mixing milk and puppy food along with 3 rounds of milk per day. It takes time for your dog to adjust to these new changes and slowly increase the number of solid meals.
During this period, your primary goal is to keep decreasing the quantity of milk from the food mixture and increase the amount of food formula. Veterinarians strongly recommend that your puppy should be taking 4 meals a day by the age of 7-8 weeks.
Let’s Wrap up: What Should You Be Doing?
Veterinarian highly recommends high-quality puppy food. If you have a large breed, we recommend you go for Hill’s Science Diet’s large breed puppy food. In contrast, Purina pro small breed formula works pretty well with smaller ones.