Whelping and Puppy Care Recipes

This page is a work in progress and contains recipes that other breeders have reported using. If you have any good recipes that you would like to share please email them to us. This is for information only. We have not tried every one of these, so use your good judgment and consult your good vet. Recipes include those that may encourage a picky eater or help a dog gain weight. There are also recipes to encourage a bitches' milk to 'come in', as well as formulas used to tube feed newborn pups, and a 'Miracle Liver Potion' to combat 'Fading Puppy Syndrome'.

I repeat!!    Consult you Veterinarian if you have any concerns about the health of your pet. Some of these recipes may keep your pet alive long enough to get them Veterinary assistance. Call your vet on the phone and ask permission before you use them. Please do not try tube-feeding a pup or administering Sub-Q fluids unless you have been trained to do so by your vet! If you don't know what you are doing you could kill the pup! Never exceed your personal expertise!!

Recipes fall into these loose categories:

1. Puppy Formulas for Bottle or Tube Feeding
2. Miracle Potions For Fading Puppies
3. Bringing In a Bitches Milk
4. Recipes to Gain Weight
5. Remedies For Loose Stools

Puppy Formulas for Bottle or Tube Feeding

Many of these recipes advocate the use of Goats' Milk. Goat's Milk is considered easier to digest and less likely to cause allergies. In Florida, we can get liquid Goat's Milk at the Supermarket.

Myra Savant-Harris's Recipe for Puppy Formula 

Reprinted from Canine Reproduction & Puppy Care Yahoo List

Check out Myra Savant-Harris's web site for more wonderful information on these topics.

Liver Water

Boil one large piece of liver in a cup of water (add water if needed) until it is very cooked. Strain the liquid and freeze leftover liquid in ice cube trays and keep in plastic bag. Don't worry about liver being a filter and having toxins. So does cat poop, but the dogs will all eat it and have since they first evolved and it hasn't killed them yet.

Evaporated Goats' Milk from Powdered

Measure 10 oz of Reverse Osmosis or spring water with 1 cup of Goats Milk Powder. Whole Goats Milk powder is preferred, but you can add 2 Tbs of Canola Oil to add the missing oil if all you can find is 2% or skim Goats Milk powder.

• One 10oz can of evaporated goats milk, or evaporated cows milk. Goats Milk is more like the Bitches milk than Cows Milk.
• 3 oz of Liver water (above)
• One raw egg yolk
• One cup of whole fat live culture yogurt
• One tablespoon of mayo or canola oil
• One dropper of infant vitamins
• One teaspoon of Corn Syrup...light or dark...doesn't matter which

Mix in a blender, keeps in your fridge for 7 days. This is a thick formula, so adjust holes in nipples if necessary. It can be tubed. It has 10-12 calories per cc which should allow for good weight gain on your babies.

Myra's thoughts on this formula: We agree!
It is thick enough to avoid aspiration
There is enough yogurt to avoid diarrhea issues that are so common with tubing
There is enough glucose to avoid hypoglycemia
There is also enough glucose to avoid constipation, common with tubing
There are enough calories to set up a weight gaining pattern immediately
Amino Acids in sufficient quantities to avoid juvenile cataract
It is high in Fats, Proteins and Carbohydrates with vitamins, minerals and iron and designed especially to head off the problems we all seem to have with tubing/hand raised babies.

Puppy Formula 1

• 1 small can (5.25 oz's) Evaporated milk
• 20 cc's Pedialyte (clear only and not sweetened with Xylitol) (On February 18, 2011, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a caution regarding the toxicity of xylitol in dogs and ferrets.)
• 6 cc's lactated ringers
• 1 - 2 teaspoons Corn syrup (Adjust for puppy poop consistency; 2 if constipated - 1 if loose)
• 2 teaspoons Canola oil
• 2 egg yolks with membrane removed (No Egg Whites as pups cannot digest them)
• 6 cc's plain cultured yogurt
• 1 dropper of Pet Drops
• Mix and refrigerate until warmed for feeding

Puppy Formula 2

• Mix at room temp:
• 1 - Small can Evaporated Milk
• 1 - Egg Yolk only, with membrane removed
• 20 - cc's Pedialyte (clear only and not sweetened with Xylitol)
• 6 - cc's Lactated Ringers
• 1 - Dropper of Pet Drops
• 1 - teaspoon Canola Oil
• 1 - teaspoon Corn Syrup
• Warm to body temp before feeding.
• Freeze half & refrigerate half, or use several small containers and freeze all but one.
• Toss any unused formula in refrigerator after 3 days

Be sure to tube a small amount at first (1/2 the 1 cc per ounce, every 2 hours) and increase gradually to 1 cc per ounce and every 4 hours, unless you have a flat-faced breed, then give 3/4 that amount per feeding.)

Puppy Formula 3

• 1 can (or, 6 fluid oz's of fresh) goats milk (or, 1 can Evaporated milk)
• 3 egg yolks with membrane removed
• 6 cc's lactated ringers
• 12 cc's Pedialyte (clear only and not sweetened with Xylitol)
• 1 tsp. Corn syrup
• 2 tsp. Canola oil
• 1 dropper Pet Drops or NutriDrops (liquid form of puppy vitamins)
• 1 envelop of plain unflavored Knox gelatin
• 6C cc's plain or vanilla active culture yogurt

Mix with egg beater of mixer at room temp and pour into small freezer containers, enough for three days in each. Store one in the refrigerator and the rest in the freezer. Warm in syringe with feeding tube attached by placing into a clean sandwich bag and laying on the heating pad under bedding in the hot box for as long as it take to reach body temp (test on your wrist, so load syringe with an extra cc of formula). If puppy doesn't have BM every day, add 1 t corn syrup, up to 1 T. and then change Canola oil to 1 T - 3 T, one teaspoon at a time (3 t. = 1 T), until stool is more frequent. Always start with less and add more gradually.

Miracle Potions for Fading Puppies

Miracle Potion (Liver) for Fading Puppies 1

Administer 3-4 drops of beef liver broth to weak and fading puppies every hour for 24 hours. Boil the liver for 15-20 minutes in a small amount of water, let it cool to room temp.-put just the broth into a dropper and give to puppies. You may see a response within 10 minutes. Repeat this for a week.

Miracle Potion (Glucose) for Fading Puppies 2

• 5% Glucose Syrup
• 1 tsp white corn syrup
• 4 tbsp boiled water
• a few grains of salt
• a few grains of salt substitute
• up to a full dropper or 1 cc

Bringing In a Bitches Milk

"Mother's Pudding" for a Nursing Bitch 1

• 1 package Vanilla Pudding (cooked kind)
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 4 cups milk
• 4 egg yolks

Cook on low heat to a pudding consistency. Feed by syringe if necessary at least 20cc twice a day of in bowl; Most will love it and will eat it readily.

"Mother's Pudding" for a Nursing Bitch 2

If you don't have a package of vanilla pudding on hand you can mix the following in a saucepan and cook to pudding consistency.

• 2/3 cup sugar
• 6 tbsp cornstarch
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 4 cups milk (or one can evaporated milk plus equal parts water to make quart)
• 4 egg yolks
• 3 tsp vanilla

Feed with syringe, on spoon, or let eat from bowl.

"Mother's Pudding" for a Nursing Bitch 3

• 1 cup milk (I used powdered goats milk or manna pro)
• 1 tsp. honey
• 1-2 tsp. flax seed oil (keep refrigerated after opening bottle)
• 1 raw egg (or two yolks)

1 or 2 junket tablets (crushed) (You'll find these in baking/pudding section, it's a thickener for some recipes, put a tablet in a small bowl & crush with back of spoon, then add the next tablet & crush, etc.)

Mix it up with egg beater or blender and let it sit at room temperature for 10 min. to let the junket tablets work. It thickens up slightly but is still quite easily poured.

Fennel Tea

Fennel tea is often used by human Moms to bring in their milk. It is good to see that it is a solution for the nursing Bitch as well.

• Fennel Tea
• 1 tsp of fennel seed, lightly crushed
• put in a mug and pour 1 cup of boiling water over the seeds
• let steep for 20 minutes and then remove the seeds.
• Add a bit of sugar or honey to sweeten a bit as it's kind of bitter
• Let cool
• Dose is 3cc for every 5lbs of body weight, twice a day

Weight Gain Recipes - this is great for the puppies in Rescue too!

Magic Bullets

• Cheap hamburger meat [high fat content}
• Lg box of Total Cereal (can substitute ground up dry dog food)
• Lg box of uncooked oatmeal
• 1 jar of Wheat Germ
• 1 1/4 cup of canola oil
• 1 1/4 cup of unflavored, unsulfured molasses
• 10 raw eggs
• 10 pks of unflavored Gelatin
• 1 cup of flaxseed...ground up.
• 2 scoops of Kelp
• Take all dry ingredients and place in a bowl. I crunch up the Total while still in the box, and then pour all the other dry ingredients over it. In another large bowl put the hamburger meat and the wet ingredients. Mix each bowl well, then half each so that it is easier to mix. Mix just like you would a meatloaf. Then make balls and place in freezer bags in the freezer. Thaw out as many balls as needed. Feed the Magic Bullets raw.

Remedies for Loose Stools

Firm It up Breakfast

If you have problems with Momma Dog after about 1-2 weeks of nursing and cleaning the pups This may work for you. Mix all the ingredients together and feed as a morning meal.

• 1 tbsp Cooked Pureed Pumpkin (Not Pumpkin Pie Filling)
• 2 tbsp Yogurt (Preferably with live culture, I like Greek Yogurt)
• 1 capsule of Slippery Elm (Open the capsule and mix the powder into the meal.)
• 2 tbsp Cottage Cheese
• 1 Hard Boiled Egg.
• I also add 1 tbsp of psylium husks (or plain unflavored Metamucil), if things are don't firm up the way I like.

Health Wise Solutions

Electrolyte Replacement Formula

• 1 quart purified or natural spring water
• 2-4 teaspoons raw, unprocessed sugar,
  or 1-2 teaspoons of powdered fruit sugar (fructose)
• 1 teaspoon Himalayan or Celtic sea salt
• 1 teaspoon of Salt Substitute (Potassium Chloride)

Boil water, add sugar (or fructose) and salt. Stir. Let cool.
Refrigerate what you do not use, but do not keep for more than 48 hours; make a new batch. It is safe for pets, particularly puppies and rabbits.

This recipe was made available as a result of an FDA Health Alert regarding Xylitol and Aspartame being used in some formulations of commercial Electrolyte replacement products.

You can freeze this solution into an ice cube tray and put the cubes into zip lock bags for convenience. Then give Mom or pup an ice cube as needed. If they are reluctant to drink they might enjoy a frozen 'treat'.