Dogs & Puppies : Nutrition
The “Hurry Diarrhea” Puppy
Every puppy must, eventually, be taught to depend upon something besides milk for his food.  This process is called weaning and constitutes the changing of a pup's diet from liquid to solid.  Most dog owners consider weaning to be that instant in time when one takes a pup from his mother.  But the fact is that weaning actually takes place both before and after a pup is separated from his mother...
Mar 27, 2006, 13:15

Dogs & Puppies : Nutrition
The "Fading Puppy" Syndrome
One of the most common causes of newborn puppy deaths is what has been named as the "fading puppy syndrome."  Many of the unexplained puppy deaths that fall into this category would undoubtedly go elsewhere if only an accurate diagnosis could be made.  Unfortunately, many of these poor little pets die so rapidly that no diagnosis can be made...
Mar 27, 2006, 13:14

Dogs & Puppies : Nutrition
Obesity In Dogs
Obesity is the most common nutritional disease in American dogs today.  It is the result of simply eating more calories than are burned.  Dogs have a built-in protection against this disease, a control mechanism in their brains that satisfies their hunger after they have eaten enough calories to meet their daily energy needs.  However, it is possible to upset this control mechanism...
Mar 27, 2006, 13:12

Dogs & Puppies : Nutrition
Nutritional Diseases In Your Dog
Similar to healthy dogs, sick dogs need to eat in order to supply energy and nutrients for growth, for replacement and repair; as well as to meet an ever changing need.  Nutritional requirements for a sick dog usually do not differ greatly from those of a healthy dog.  A sick dog's dietary needs, however, can become substantially different from those of a healthy dog...
Mar 27, 2006, 13:10

Dogs & Puppies : Nutrition
Dog Anorexia
When a dog refuses to eat or eats only a portion of what he needs or what he usually eats every day, this will also produce a deficiency.  The term Anorexia is used to describe the condition when a dog refuses to eat.  Many dog owners take their dog's eating for granted until the dog actually stops eating.  A dog's eating habits are normally controlled by hunger, appetite, and the satisfaction of these two.  This control may be abnormally affected by emotions, sensations, or the taste of the food...
Mar 27, 2006, 13:01

Dogs & Puppies : Nutrition
The Weaning Procedure
Most dog owners allow their pups to eat directly from the mother's bowl as soon as they are able to do so. This enables them to learn, by observation, how to eat. However, continuing this practice for more than a few days after the puppies begin to eat has several objectionable features.  First, the mother usually is not eating the same diet that her puppies should be eating.  Second, the mother often resents her puppies eating from her bowl and will snarl and snap at them when they start to investigate or experiment with her food.  Such behavior is hardly conducive to an atmosphere for teaching little puppies that the food pan is one of the best places to know.  Finally, feeding containers for mothers are seldom fitting for tiny pups, and vice versa...
Mar 10, 2006, 19:28

Dogs & Puppies : Nutrition
The Proper Feeding Procedure For your Puppy
The growing puppy should be weighed once a week for the first six months of his life.  The weekly growth rate, which starts from weaning to six months, should be very constant that it forms a straight line when plotted on a graph.  The amount of food consumed by a fast growing puppy should be increased at almost the same rate as the puppy's growth.  The only way to make sure this increase in food consumption happens at the proper rate is to feed a puppy from a self-feeder. Whenever a puppy eats everything he is fed, add a little more, so that you are always offering the puppy just a little more than he will eat...
Mar 10, 2006, 19:26

Dogs & Puppies : Nutrition
The Growing Puppy
After the puppy has been weaned, he can begin to learn how to handle and digest different types of new foods.  During the next 12 to 18 months of his life, he will continue to learn how to cope with the variety of new foods he eats.  For the first six to eight months of that period the puppy will be both growing and using nutrients and energy at an incredible rate.  If a food is fed containing ingredients to which a puppy is not used to or nutrients that are difficult to digest, he may be unable to obtain sufficient nutrients and energy to sustain his rapid growth.  In such cases the puppies are usually stunted...
Mar 10, 2006, 19:25

Dogs & Puppies : Nutrition
Procedures For Bottle Feeding Your Puppy
When bottle feeding your puppy, start by filling the bottles with water and then put on the nipples and invert them to see if they leak.  By squeezing the bottle slightly the increased internal pressure aids in discovering leaks.  If the stream of water from the hole in the nipple is less than the diameter of a straight pin, heat a needle and enlarge the hole a little.  Wash all the bottles and nipples in hot, soapy water and then sterilize them.  Pour just enough formula into the bottle that will provide a single feeding and warm it to room temperature.  This can be done by holding it under hot tap water, while turning the bottle...
Mar 10, 2006, 19:23

Dogs & Puppies : Nutrition
Feeding Your Puppy
A puppy always tells his dog owner whether he is getting too much or too little food in several ways.  Crying is one of the most often recognized, but least likely to be always accurate.  Although hungry puppies do cry, so do cold puppies, hot puppies, puppies that were disturbed from a nap, lost puppies, sad puppies, etc.  Crying is simply nature's way of giving a puppy a means of telling everybody that he is unhappy.  Anything that makes a puppy unhappy will probably also make him cry, even having his tummy too full.  Therefore, to say that a puppy is crying because he is hungry requires a judgment on the owner’s part.  And since we do not think like a puppy, we have to use the reactions of the puppy's system to determine whether or not he is getting enough to eat...
Mar 10, 2006, 19:22

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