
When we had a litter of 15 Aussiedoodle puppies, the mother wasn't eating enough to feed them all enough calories. So, we stepped in and were "topping off" 15 puppies every 4 hours. We were blending up seemingly endless amounts of Myra's formula for weeks because I couldn't find a formula with an ingredient list that I felt comfortable with.
As an ethical dog breeder, our hope is always that our mother dog is a great mother and has enough milk for all of her puppies. It is critical for the puppies immune system and survival that they get colostrum in the first 48 hours of life. For a puppy, receiving milk from a healthy mother is absolutely best for them. But on occasion, there are circumstances where a reputable breeder may need to intervene and supplement the pup, or even completely feed the puppy.
If you are in a situation where your mother dog doesn't have enough milk for all of her puppies, I first recommend increasing her food and water. Calories and water are essential for milk production. You goal is to help her make enough milk. Make sure that she has tons of water readily available, high quality dog/puppy food always available and if she has a large number of puppies, you may want to make her mother's pudding or add Dyne to her food. We milk our own goats for our dogs, so we mix up a cocktail of fresh goat milk, calcium, and formula mix if we have it on hand. If you cannot get your puppies to gain enough weight, even by giving the mother dog extra food, you may need to take extra steps to make sure that your puppies stay healthy.
Right now we have 12 beautiful Labradoodle puppies. They are doing a pretty well at gaining weight, but we are rotating them 6 at a time every 2 hours to be with Mom. We keep 6 of them in a warm space away from Mom and the other 6 are with Mom. I make sure that the puppies eat at the beginning of the 2 hours and right before I take them away from Mom. We still have 2 puppies that aren't gaining quite as much weight as we would like, so we are giving them a little bit of supplementation.
A few other tips:
We like Dr Brown's Glass Baby Bottles with size 1 nipples. We have found "pet bottles" DO NOT work well for our standard Labradoodle, Goldendoodle and Aussiedoodle to large puppies. Maybe they would work well for toy or mini breeds, but I would not use such small bottles/nipples for standard sized breeds. We have a video available on how to bottle feed your puppy correctly.
We have tried a few different formulas and we have made our own formula from scratch. Here are a few pros and cons to all of them.
I am huge on nutrition. Many diseases for dogs are associated with poor nutrition or obesity. So it is very important to make sure that your puppy is getting the best quality food. I love this homemade formula recipe.
Here is the recipe for Myra's Puppy Formula.
It contains 10-12 calories per cc
10 oz can of condensed goat’s milk
1/3 cup of strained liver water (you can substitute with freshly made beef broth)
2 raw egg yolks
1 T mayonnaise or olive oil, your choice
1 cup whole fat yogurt, best quality and freshest possible
1 tsp Karo syrup (either light or dark)
1 dropper of baby vitamins (We like Nordic Naturals DHA baby drops) Make liver water by adding a large slice of liver to 1 cup of water and reducing the water to 1/3. Blend all ingredients together until it is smooth. I highly recommend that you run it through cheesecloth or a milk strainer because no matter how much you blend this, it does get little lumps that can clog the bottle. If you are tube feeding, you can skip this step.
If you want to store this for up to 6 months, you can freeze in ice cube trays for easy portions. Then you can simply thaw out the amount you need.
Pros: this gives them excellent replacement nutrition.
You can buy all the ingredients locally (at least in a large town)
The puppies poop doesn't smell awful
Cons: It is expensive
It is time consuming, especially making the liver water
You do have to strain it or it will clog the bottle
If you are feeding a lot of puppies, you are mixing up several blenderfuls a day
before the puppies are weaned.
Breeders Edge Foster Care GM Formula
26.88 ME kcal/tbsp
After doing lots of research, I finally found this formula. I love that the first ingredient on the list is Dry Goat's Milk, and the second ingredient is animal fats. And honestly, it smells really delicous. I am not lying when I tell you that it smells like something I might voluntarily drink if it wasn't labeled for dogs. I probably will be keeping this on hand for any future puppies that need a little help, because it is the easiest and healthiest puppy formula that I have found.
Pros: It has great nutrition
It mixes up easily without lumps
It is cost effective, though still expensive
The puppies poop doesn't smell horrible
Cons: It is not locally available. Find it here

Pet AG PetLac Puppy Milk Replacement
13 kcal/tbs of liquid
We have used this a few times because it is locally available in our Tractor Supply store. In our store, there are only 2 formulas available. I chose this one because the first ingredient is dried skimmed milk, as opposed to the other formula that has vegetable oil as its first ingredient. I do not like the smell of this formula and it also needs to be run through a strainer before feeding in a bottle since it clumps.
Pros: It is locally available (at least here in the Phoenix area)
It is about the same cost as other formulas
Cons: The ingredient list isn't ideal
It clumps when mixed up
It smells bad
The puppies poop smells bad, but the mother will still cleanup behind them
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