In my work I talk to a lot of moms about breastfeeding and the ins and outs of feeding your baby. So, watching Impulse feed her babies has been particularly interesting to me. I love watching the stages of nursing. To me, it looks like four stages. Stage One: getting latched and working on getting that milk to let down. At this point all six babies have found their nipple and are kneading and prodding and pulling those nipples till I think they're going to pull them right off Impulse. They are working hard for their dinners. I also usually hear little grunts and whines as they are frusterated their meal isn't being served quite as quickly as they think it should be. Stage Two: The Letdown. The milk starts to flow with ease. All at once, every puppy stops moving and you know milk is just pouring out. All that can be heard is swallows as each puppy drinks their tummies full. No more whines, no more grunts, just soft little puppy swallows. Stage Three: The Slowdown. This must be when the bulk of the milk has been letdown and the flow lessens. Again, all at once as if on cue, every puppy gets panicky and starts fighting for a new nipple because the one they were on isn't giving up the goods like it was a couple seconds ago. Once they try out a few, they realize they're all the same and they settle down again. Stage Four: sleep. After each meal follows a good long nap. Some puppies are still latched on and start sucking again if you disturb them, others fall off the nipple in happy full tummy dreams. As they've gotten older feeding has become more efficient. It takes less time for the milk to let down, less time to get through the main part of the feed, and quicker to sleep. I was starting to find though that puppies were feeding more often and not sleeping as soundly after feeds. Partly due to the fact that they're getting older and have more wakeful periods, and I think partly due to the fact that they are monsters and Impulse is reaching her peak of being able to feed all the monsters.
I did a lot of reading on starting puppies on solids, and there seems to be no "best answer". I found this frusterating. Not only do ages that people start their puppies on vary, but the debate over what to feed and when to feed is huge. I opted to go with what I know and apply some of my infant feeding knowledge to puppies. First of all, no cow's milk. That seems to be fairly well accepted among breeders. Next was what the solid bit should be. I read about people giving puppies infant cereal, all kinds of concoctions of human foods etc. But these are not small people, they are puppies. So, the decision was made to simply grind up the food they'll be eating once they're weaned, which is also the food Impulse eats now. That is, Go Natural. I've raised all my puppies since Argus on Go once they've arrived home and have loved the food, so chose to use this to wean puppies on to. Picked up some goat's milk and was ready to rock. It should be noted, Magic Bullets are not made to grind dog food. Good thing I have an old blender to use. Soaked the kibble in the goat's milk, added a scoop of canned food and made it into a nice pastey slurry. Slopped onto a tray and ready to go. But not quite. I still want the puppies main calories to come from mom, and I want her milk supply to stay up for another couple weeks. So, after Impulse finished an afternood feed, I kept puppies up, put a towel down and one at a time introduced them to this new goop. They all thought it was quite fine, but didn't gorge themselves, due to being mostly full up with momma's milk. I think this will provide a nice easy transitition and as they get older they'll gradually need more and more filling up with the food, and need mom less and less. I'm starting with two meals/day for a few days, and then will up to three. I don't want to upset little tummies. So far, Impulse continues to keep her pen impeccable, unless I catch a poop between her times in with the puppies you'd never know they poop....so far. I know that will all change soon. And so, life with six puppies will get a little messier, but the fuzzy cuteness will mostly make up for that I think. ;)
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