HOME FAMILY History The Sire, Bisket The Dame, Matza The Son, Max Family & Friends The Good Life 1ST LITTER 2ND LITTER The Whelping 1st Month 2nd Month 3rd Month 3RD LITTER The Courtship The Pregnancy The Whelping Weeks 1 & 2 Weeks 3 & 4 Weeks 5 & 6 Weeks 7 & 8 Weeks 9 & 10 weeks 11 & 12 4TH LITTER To Be Announced INFO Breeder's License Breed FAQ Health Issues Purchase Policy Buying A Puppy? Contacts Welcome to My Yorkie-Poo Companion Pages! The 3rd Litter, Weeks 5 & 6 September 2004

Weaning the puppies
I began the weaning process at the end of the first month. The puppies showed little interest at first. The mother would show up to see what I was doing and they'd just start attacking her instead. I had to start keeping the mother separate so the puppies would just concentrate on me. I began by soaking hard puppy food in warm whole milk until the food pellets became soft. I'd dip my fingers into the warm milk and let them lick the droplets of milk off. Then I'd hold soft pieces of food saturated with milk up to their mouths. While they were licking the milk off and I'd coax their mouths open to insert the food. Mostly they would suck the rest of the milk off then drop the food.Finally after giving several pieces of food to each puppy, I'd let the mother back in and she'd show the puppies how to eat by finishing off the remaining mixture. I'd set the puppies up to the dish so they could see the mother eating. After a few days they actually started chewing, but still just dropped the food after the milk was drained. After a week, I started leaving some hard food pellets in a bowl also, which they enjoyed knocking around and chasing more so than eating. However, they were teething so they did manage to chew up and eat some of the hard food if Momma didn't get to it first. By the tenth day of hand feeding them, they were actually excited about getting fed. They ran up to the dish and began licking up the milk without any encouragement. I still had to hand feed pieces to each one just to make sure they had eaten. They're still not quite sure how to pick up the soft milk soaked pieces yet but they have no trouble picking up and chewing on the hard pellets.

The puppies are up playing much longer and more frequently now. Their curiousity has no bounds. They are interested in every noise they hear and every movement they see. When one of the adult Yorkie-Poos come near they'll get all excited. They run up to greet me with their tails wagging whenever I stop by. They've started trying to escape the play pen by standing on their hind legs. Attempts are made to pull themselves up over the top with the front paws.

Continue to the 3rd litter's "Weeks 7 and 8"

A PET PEEVE PRODUCTION