The Benefits of Nursing for Puppies

Many of you reading this already know that dogs, being the good mammals they are, need a nursing period that runs from birth through to a certain number of weeks.

Separating a puppy too early, before it has had the chance to drink its mother's milk, can therefore leave it out of balance. Let's look at why this matters, along with some tips and alternatives we can turn to.

The Importance and Benefits of Nursing

The study of puppies can be divided into four periods:

• Neonatal period: from birth to two weeks of age.
• Transition period: between two and four weeks.
• Socialisation period: from the fourth to the twelfth week.
• Juvenile period: from the twelfth week to six months of age.

As we mentioned earlier, all mammals need a nursing period, which takes in the neonatal and transition periods.

The first milk they take from the mother is called colostrum. This normally refers to the milk of the first or second day of nursing after birth.

It is vitally important, since it provides the hydration the puppy needs, being mostly water in composition. It also provides energy and rich nutrients such as protein and fat, among others. It equally provides the first antibodies (immunoglobulins) the puppy receives. These will be the first defences it needs to fight off microorganisms. The puppy will absorb them intact, which gives it passive immunity.

Colostrum intake also stimulates the production and development of the puppy's gut microbiota, which will be essential throughout the animal's life.

Tips for Puppies

The nursing period and the transition between milk dependency and puppies feeding themselves — the weaning phase — begins around the fourth week of age and is completed between the fifth and the eighth. These are nutritionally critical stages that shape the later stages of development and growth.

In the meantime, all newborn puppies should take colostrum and then their mother's milk from the bitch's teats. It will therefore be important to check that they are all suckling normally and have access to the necessary daily intake of these rich nutrients.

During the nursing period it's important to keep track of the puppy's body weight gain, its body temperature and other parameters such as alertness, muscle tone and response to handling.

As for handling neonates (newborns), owners need to know that the three most frequent and dangerous signs in puppies are chilling, dehydration and hypoglycaemia (low blood sugar).

Our puppy's temperature in the first week should be between 35 and 37ºC, and in the fourth week it rises to match the temperature it will have for the rest of its life: 38.5ºC. Between these weeks, then, it will be essential to control the ambient temperature where the puppies are kept, avoiding cold spots or direct draughts.

As for dehydration and hypoglycaemia, these won't appear if our puppy drinks the right amount of its mother's milk at the right frequency, which is why we stress once again how important that milk is.

What Alternatives Do We Have?

Puppies shouldn't lose weight; they should gain it day by day. A failure to gain weight can be a sign that there's an illness in the puppy or in the bitch, that milk production is insufficient, or that the puppy is unable to suckle.

When the problem is that the mother runs out of milk or doesn't produce enough to keep the puppy growing at a proper rate, weaning from the mother has to begin.

Other factors can also come into play in deciding to wean, such as the mother's milk having inadequate nutritional properties, the mother rejecting the puppy, a lack of maternal instinct, or the mother suffering from some illness.

Many situations make it necessary to turn to bottle-feeding the puppy, replacing or supplementing the mother's milk with balanced formula milks.

It's highly advisable that these be milks with balanced nutrients, enriched with mineral and vitamin complexes and, if necessary, with natural colostrum, to guarantee the animal's proper and complete development.

On this website we don't advertise any brand, but as a vet and going by my professional experience, Royal Canin's milk formulas work very well, in puppies and kittens alike.

They can be bought at veterinary clinics or pet shops. That way you make sure your puppy carries on taking quality milk. It doesn't come from the mother, but it's an excellent substitute.

The pack comes with a bottle and sachets of powdered milk, which will have to be dissolved and mixed with lukewarm water — neither cold nor very hot — and given several times a day, as the leaflet and our puppy's age require.

To conclude and sum up, we can say that the nursing period of a puppy, whether a dog or any other mammal, is essential to its life. Nutritionally, immunologically and for the gut.

If this period is interrupted for any of the various reasons above, that needn't be a reason to stop supplying those nutrients artificially until the nursing period ends and the puppy moves on to the next kind of food, at roughly a month and a half to two months. Any doubts should be put to our trusted vet, since in these cases one question too many is worth more than one too few.