Hello board! We have a litter of five week old pups that we had to wean at 3 weeks due to 2 cases of severe mastitis. the little rascals are doing fine, but after I wormed them they look a little thin. I was wondering if it would be Ok or advisable to add cooked hamburger well drained of course) to their meals?

Hi,

U would probably be better off using minced (ground) beef, raw, or minced chicken (again, raw).

Em

If they are a bit thin they need more carbohydrate and fats. You could add cod liver oil or beef suet abut a tea spoon once a day to start with to get their tums used to it slowly. Dont overload with vitamins though, if you are already giving a vit/min supp then I would use the beef suet. Also plain boiled pasta and tinned oily fish like sardines/pilchards should put on weight. It may be easier to feed a complete puppy diet ( complete kibble)for giant breeds to make sure they are getting what they need. I assume they have been wormed for roundworms. My pups (labs and westies) have never done well on raw muscle meat, it gives them the runs.

If you are not going to feed "complete" I would give them 30% cooked meat or fish,30% pasta, 40% quality mixer and soak it in the meat cooking water. Add a good quality all round vit/min supplement 4 times a week and Cod liver oil/suet on the other 3 days. I give puppies scrambled eggs once a week in a meal instead of the meat/fish. you can also give evaporated milk or puppy milk formula either as a drink twice a day diluted as directed or neat on meals ( about a dessert spoon per puppy). This also will put weight on quickly. Be careful to give small amounts when you start to add these extra oils/fats/milks as they may affect the tums if you give too much too quickly and some individuals may get a bit runny.