How To Make The Best Puppy Mush For Labradors (2022)

[@zenikim]

This video was so informative! I am getting ready to ween some Goldendoodle/German Shepherd/Husky mix pups off their mama. I think they are going to love it. Oh, Thanos is a cutie!!! ❤

[@myredfoxlabs8885]

Glad it was helpful!

[@veronicapomona]

So so Helpful!! Thank you. Please keep your informational videos coming. Thank you

[@myredfoxlabs8885]

Thanks for stopping by the channel.

[@BarbaraHayes-vo3cq]

Thxs so much I have 5 lab pups and this is my first time with puppies, so I appreciate your help with making their mush!!!

[@myredfoxlabs8885]

Absolutely! Thanks for stopping by the channel.

[@CopperRidge]

The corn bag is so smart. Thank you for the tip!

[@myredfoxlabs8885]

Thanks for stopping by the channel!

[@_theHost]

Your voice is very soothing very great commenter

[@myredfoxlabs8885]

Oh thank you

[@amiyamoretta7107]

So helpful! Thank you so much especially the final tip! How often do you give them this meal when mom's feedings are 3-4 hours apart? Thank you!

[@myredfoxlabs8885]

Hi and thanks for stopping by the channel....our pups are eating 4X a day by the time we put them on this mush. If your pups are 3-4 hours between feedings, they might not need the mush yet. We transition our dogs when the pups are hungry every two hours or so which is about 3-4 weeks of age. In our last litter, we had 9 pups and our female had a hard time producing enough milk for all of them. You could start your pups with this mush 2X a day letting them feed on mom the other times. Just depends on mom's ability to produce and if the pups are staying satisfied after they eat. Hope that helps.

[@genejaytre]

@@myredfoxlabs8885 my pups are only 2 weeks and mom is starting to get up more and she has 9 babies. I was told to introduce mush now but would love your thoughts. TIA

[@joelpogar]

@@genejaytre Are their eyes open yet? That usually happens between 2-3 weeks with labs.... If they can see the mush bowl then I would give it a try. If we were in this situation, I would make it extremely thin with more milk than dry food. The dry food from the mush keeps them full longer but two weeks might be a tad early....at least for our labs. The other thing to do is keep it warm, just like mom, as we talk about in the video..... If their eyes are not open yet I would strongly consider bottle feeding them the formula between feedings with mom. Bottle feeding 9 pups is rough and we have done it.....we had neighbors and kids come help with bottle feeding....make a party out of it. Everybody loves to hold a puppy! Hope that helps, let us know how it goes.

[@genejaytre]

@@joelpogar thanks they eyes just opened I tried a little today and they did ok. I did it in twos so I can watch

[@karriebutler1097]

I love this.. thank you

[@myredfoxlabs8885]

You're so welcome!

[@user-ip7sq1oz8l]

First time - Last time Litter. We now have eight (8) beautiful chocolate labs and thankfully, their all adopted after the eight (8) week State mandatory holding period. Video was fantastic. Thank you so much. Any recommendations for flooring as I move them to a larger space in our home? Thank you again.

[@myredfoxlabs8885]

Hi, thanks for stopping by the channel. We have a dedicated space for the pups. For the first two weeks they are in our house with a sheet of plastic under the whelping box. At two weeks we will move them to our exterior shop that has an epoxy floor., At six weeks, we will move them to individual crates. Another option is a sheet of scrap or remnant vinyl flooring from Home Depot. We have a breeder friend that does this.... She gets an 8x8 or 8x10 piece of vinyl flooring and puts it under their box. When she doesn't have a litter, it just rolls up and stores in her garage. It works for her and she says it's very easy to clean. Hope that helps!

[@user-tp2ys2mp4f]

Love puppy pro plan

[@myredfoxlabs8885]

Thanks for stopping by the channel!

[@sharongirdley-jp2pq]

Great video, so our Labrador momma has mastitis and is currently on antibiotics as of Tuesday. On Tuesday the puppies were 3 weeks and a few days old so we started the milk replacer since mom can’t feed them anymore. They have had some diarrhea since then. As of Friday they are 4 weeks old so we introduced the gruel 1X and today Saturday we have given them 3X. My question is how many feeding should we give them of the gruel? Also how many days to reduce e the amount of milk replacer in the gruel?

[@myredfoxlabs8885]

We have experienced this same issue with one of our females...all I can say is be very aggressive in treating momma. We went from swelling and antibiotics to septic and almost losing the mother within 5 days. She ended up spending 4 days in doggy ICU with round the clock care. Not trying to be dramatic, just saying to keep a close eye on it cause it can go from mild to bad in a matter of days, even with antibiotics. To your original question.....we feed our pups the mush 4X a day. We were basically on a schedule of 7am-12pm-5pm-8pm. The 8pm feeding is more like a "snack" just to keep them full and sleeping through the night. If we skipped it, the pups would be up super early looking for food. The transition from milk replacer to water happens over a 2 week period for us. The milk replacer is high in fat and the pups need that for their rapid growth and brain development. We will cut down the milk replacer every few days and add in more water. We will also make the mush "chunkier" over this period so by 6 weeks old the pups are eating mostly solid food right from the bag. Hope that helps, and this process has worked well for us as a breeder. BTW, we have also learned some "mastitis prevention" tips....if anyone wants to see a video on that let us know and we will post it. Not a 100% guarantee, but it reduces the risk of infection.

[@shahidahgrant1720]

Thank you! I just got my puppy and was so scared

[@myredfoxlabs8885]

Glad it helped!

[@ChristinaWelch]

I tried the milk replacer and it made one of my puppies sick for about 12 hours. She wouldn't eat or nurse and just slept. So, we switched to goats milk, rice cereal and canned puppy food. They eat some, but they aren't really interested in it. They just turned 4 weeks on Friday and I'm trying to keep momma from feeding too often. I let her in the whelping box a few times a day. The pups are gaining about an ounce a day, but I wish they'd show more interest in eating. Any suggestions? They are westies, 3 in our litter. btw mom had rejected them at birth, but we did get her to at least nurse them. Friday she decided to love on them now.......was a rough month. Stimulating and feeding every few hours left us sleepless....lol

[@myredfoxlabs8885]

Thanks for stopping by the channel. Sorry it took some time to respond, we were out for a long holiday break. I would actually consult your vet and see if there are any medical issues impacting their appetite....possibly an allergy or parasite? We have not experienced your issue before, in fact, we have the exact opposite problem where all our puppies want to do is eat and we have to slow them down. Weight gain is critical for pups so it's good to see they are still getting bigger. Vets can be expensive so maybe check with another breeder that has experiences with westies? We've spent most of our years with Labs and GSP's so we just don't have enough experience with westies to know if there is something unique to that breed. If these were labs, my immediate suspicion would be allergy or parasite, both of which can be easily diagnosed and treated. Let us know how it goes.....all the best for you and the pups.

[@marieelder8339]

hello i find your video and i was wondering do you have to use the milk replacement o r can you just use the water and puppy food just make sure it has no hard pices if you do how much water and milk replacement do you use and how many times do you feed them a day my puppies are 4 weeks old

[@myredfoxlabs8885]

Great question! We used the milk replacement because they were used to that and the smell of it so it encouraged them to try the "mush". Just follow the directions on the milk replacer for water content. When using plain water, just make sure it's the consistency of oatmeal. We do that for a week or so then yes, will transition them to just water as they get older. The milk replacer also has a high fat content which helps them in a number of ways including keeping them full. We will start our pups on the mush at 3 weeks then move to completely dry food by 6 weeks or so. Our pups eat 4X a day at 7am, 12pm, 5pm and 8pm. The 8pm feeding is more of a "snack" that keeps them full and sleeping through the night. Hope that helps!

[@marieelder8339]

@@myredfoxlabs8885 ok thank you so much getting back to me

[@yoshebelllillian350]

Whats in the puppy food???

[@chrischadwick5395]

Hi guys. So when you first start to wean the pups, how often do you offer them the gruel? Once a day at first? Many thanks

[@myredfoxlabs8885]

It depends on how tolerant mom is....there have been times where momma just quits feeding and we pretty much have to flip right to the gruel. Or, momma can't produce enough milk. Ideally yes, once a day at first but it really dependent on mom. It's been our experience that as soon as teeth come in for the pups mom has less desire to feed because it's uncomfortable for her. Hope that helps.

[@tracyrichardson4415]

How much water and milk replacer did you use? I’m using the PetAg milk replacer plus for the first time. We have 8 lab puppies and they are 4 weeks old today. The mom is not letting them nurse as much so we’re wanting to start supplementing.

[@myredfoxlabs8885]

We were using the Esbilac milk replacer because it was recommended by out vet. At 4 weeks, they should start getting their teeth and mom won't be too happy with them nursing. For the puppy mush, we mixed the Esbilac according to the directions and then added the ground up puppy food to make it thicker and satisfy their hunger for longer. Wasn't really a "formula" to the mixture...we just got it to the point it was an oatmeal like texture and they loved it as you can see in the video. They got messy at times but mom always cleaned them up after. Hope that helps!

[@dogmant.3720]

Does the milk give them worms ?.can I use goat milk from tractor supply?

[@tman8939]

the instructions on the esbilac supplement says do not use blender. guess I have been using it incorrectly on my 2 litters that I have had. Keeping with tradition I will use the blended on my third litter.

[@myredfoxlabs8885]

You don't want to blend the Esbilac by itself because it's thin and high-speed blending can introduce air in the mixture...potentially giving the pups some gas. Same thing would happen if you make a shake and blend cows milk from your fridge. However, by combining the Esbilac with the puppy food it makes a thicker mixture and helps to reduce any air introduced by the blender. I would not blend on high speed, just enough to mix it thoroughly. We've never had an issue with the method we have shown in the video.

[@user-of1uz2hc6b]

What do u give one pup to eat a day

[@myredfoxlabs8885]

They self-feed till they are full but we feed them 3x a day....maybe a "snack" right before they go to bed just to have something in their tummies.

[@josephjones1563]

Where did you get the stainless steel feeder?

[@myredfoxlabs8885]

Amazon has them. Here's the exact link for the bowl in the video (not an affiliate link). www.amazon.com/gp/product/B091TSKLLY/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[@AmandaJones-vp1gr]

,❤

[@leinaalam133]

THANk you So much! It is our First time and wē have a litter of 10 pitbulls/australian Cattle. Super excited to get Them Strated!

[@myredfoxlabs8885]

Glad this helped, good luck with the litter!

[@OakwiseBecoming]

@leinaalam133 Pitbulls should be banned, you sicko

[@jayvelez1683]

In terms of kibble, pro plan is not the best for your dogs health. Valu pak, wag, Victor, strive, diamond naturals, bully max, diamond pro 89, 4 health dog food and blue buffalo are the ones that you should stick too. This opinion is based off of facts and research. Also I recommend you buy some red cell, ground flax seeds and coconut oil for your dogs. You have some beautiful dogs .

[@myredfoxlabs8885]

Thanks for stopping by the channel!

[@kanibis420]

Purina is the Worst Company out there ... IMO

[@myredfoxlabs8885]

Everyone is entitled to their opinion and this is NOT sponsored content. We have been raising healthy Labs for 30 years and have not had an issue with our process. We have used Science Diet in the past, also a great food, but found Pro Plan to be more available in stores (Denver, CO) during these weird times.

[@rosarioguerrero458]

Purina is not the best one IMO

[@myredfoxlabs8885]

We know people have strong opinions about what foods are best. For us, it's a combination of quality, cost and availability. We used Science Diet for years but had a hard time getting it reliably during COVID and the following supply chain issues. We really like Royal Canin but it's too expensive in our area.