McNab Puppy Progress: First Day of Solid Food

The pups celebrated their three-week birthday today with their first solid food. Their eyes are open, their little needle-teeth emerging, and they are in the early stages of playful behavior. Plus, they give kisses. They bark and growl and raise their paws in invitation to play. There's nothing more wonderful than puppies.

Mattie-K8 (left) helps Molly raise the puppies.

Mattie-K8, our Papillon-in-Charge, has coveted these puppies since their arrival. She initially wanted to steal them; now, she is insisting on co-parenting. She awakens me in the night by barking if one yelps, and she promptly leaps over the makeshift puppy gate and checks on them. She also growls at Molly and insists the puppies are, in fact, hers.  It's a testament to Molly's good nature that she lets Mattie-K8 away with so much puppy appropriation.

Now, the big event: introduction to solid food!  As I note in the video below, I expected the puppies to be reluctant to try something new. Years of marriage to a very risk-free and unadventurous eater have apparently conditioned me. To my surprise, the puppies jumped onto that food (literally as well as figuratively) and devoured it greedily. It was a thing of beauty. 

Although I have a beautiful new stainless steel puppy dish, I opted for a saucer for their first effort, again thinking it'd be easier if they needed coaching. At their next meal I'll use the puppy dish and then get my fingers quickly out of the way of these voracious little sharks. 

I made them a meal of Royal Canin canned puppy food (affiliate link) and water - two parts canned food to one part water.  The Royal Canin is a top-quality food, ideal for weaning puppies as it is only 7.5% protein. Higher protein foods can be challenging for delicate puppy tummies. The Royal Canin also is a paté-type consistency, easy to mix with water and free of big chunks that can challenge little pups. The puppies just wolfed it down. Before I even had the chance to dip the first pup's nose in as introduction, he was squirming out of my hands to eat. No need to baby these babies through! 

Feeding was a messy affair, as you can tell from the photo and video. Many wet-wipes were sacrificed to clean puppy faces afterwards. As soon as they'd had their fill and flopped down for the post-feeding happy-belly nap, I let Molly back in. She promptly cleaned up the leftovers.

On the next feeding, the puppies will be using their stainless steel puppy dish (affiliate link). The dish is weighted, dishwasher safe, and has a raised center to keep food from being pushed inward - which will help keep puppies from having to crawl into the middle of the dish. It's also large enough to provide ample space so the bigger pups, like Tank and Spotty, don't shove tiny Chevy or petite Flashdance out of the way. Mid-sized Flower has no problem squeezing into the fray.

Although Molly will still be feeding the puppies also, I'm going to hang a water bottle on the side of the pen. The puppies will need more and more water as they wean from her. Molly's already seeking more adult conversation these days, and less concerned about feeding the pups. Nature is encouraging her to instinctively spend less time with the little ones. 

Now it's time to do puppy laundry ... again. They're still quite easy to clean up after, and Molly is still helping with the cleaning, but puppies are gonna puppy and that means lots of handy-wipes and wash cycles.

Copyright (c) 2019 MJ Miller * All rights reserved * No part of this content, including photos or video, may be used without permission of the author * Links, however, may be freely shared and are greatly appreciated * Thank you for linking, liking, sharing, tweeting, and otherwise helping grow my readership * Most of all, thanks for stopping by!