Dog - caring for your newborn puppy

The local animal shelter has asked you to volunteer to foster a mother dog and her family until she and the puppies can be placed up for adoption. While most dog mothers will do all that is necessary to raise their litters, it's a good idea to be prepared in the event of a problem.

Newborn puppy care

If the mother has died, rejected her young or cannot produce milk, its up to you to make sure that the litter receives adequate nutrition. If you cannot find a foster mother, you can bottle-feed the babies with a milk replacer. Puppies need to eat every two hours, so consult your veterinarian for the exact amount to feed.

It is also imperative that you keep the young ones warm. A hot water bottle wrapped in a towel works well.

It is also important that you regularly handle the newborns. This will help socialize them. If it's at all possible, PetDoc recommends keeping the litter together until they are at least  7 weeks old.

For proper socialization, try to handle puppies about 3 or 4 times a day, starting when they are about 3 weeks old. When they are four weeks of age, introduce them to moistened puppy food two to four times daily dry food should be available as well. By six weeks , they should be weaned off of milk completely.