We assume that you have a healthy litter of 5 cute puppies that are all in perfect health and have had no complications during birth.

In this phase the puppy is very vulnerable because important functions are not yet sufficiently developed.

During this period the puppy is completely dependent on the mother animal for warmth, nutrition and stimulation of urination and defecation.
The leading causes of death in newborn puppies are oxygen deprivation, hypothermia and trauma.

In principle, the mother animal takes care of her offspring herself after giving birth.
For example, she licks the membranes of the puppy's snout to clear the airway.
She also licks her puppies to maintain body heat and also bites the umbilical cord and stimulates the puppies to drink.

Assistance immediately after birth.

If the mother animal is unable to carry out any of the above care, assistance is required.
For example, the membranes must then be removed manually, with special attention to the nose and mouth.
If the umbilical cord is not bitten (properly), intervention will also be necessary here.
Sterile forceps are placed on the umbilical cord approximately 3-4 cm from the puppy's belly.
The umbilical cord is cut just behind the forceps, on the side of the placenta.
The forceps remain at the end of the umbilical cord stump for at least 10 minutes.
If the umbilical cord stump is still bloody after removal of the forceps, a suture will be necessary.

Abnormalities in the newborn puppy

All newborn animals should be checked for birth defects immediately after birth.
For example, attention is paid to the occurrence of a cleft lip, cleft palate, umbilical hernia, open abdomen, abnormal limbs and chest shape and the presence or absence of the anus.

Force-feeding the newborn puppy

But what if the puppy does not drink well or even at all? Then additional feeding will be necessary.
Preference is given to artificial milk. There are different brands, each with their own energy density.
Crucial when feeding puppies is the realization that puppies have an individual growth pattern!
Standard feeding recommendations therefore do not work sufficiently. This means that it must be calculated separately for each puppy how much milk should be given per day.

To calculate this properly, some basic information is needed:

• Birth weight of the puppy

• Expected growth in grams per day

• The energy required per gram of growth (this is 16 kilojoules for a puppy)

• The energy density per ml of artificial milk (can be requested from the manufacturer)

A healthy puppy should grow approximately 10%, with a doubling of weight every 10 days.
After every 100 grams of growth, the amount of milk to be given must be recalculated.
The maximum stomach capacity of a puppy is approximately 5-10% of its body weight.

A puppy weighing, for example, 200 grams may therefore receive a maximum of 20 ml of milk at a time. For safety reasons, 7% of the body weight is used.

In the first week, food is offered at least 8 times a day (every 3 hours) (or 9 times a day every 2 hours). At night, every 4 hours is sufficient. The milk is offered at body temperature (au bain-marie or microwave).


Healthy puppy

A healthy puppy in the right environmental temperature will be active and able to find the mother's nipple on its own. The sucking reflex is sufficiently strong.
If a puppy has difficulty finding the nipple, you can help by placing the puppy's mouth over the nipple.
Newborn puppies should be checked every 2-3 hours to see whether the mother animal still accepts them and whether they are drinking enough.

Drinking the puppies will get their metabolism going. This causes the body temperature to rise.
The temperature in the womb is constant.
After birth, however, the puppy comes into an environment where the temperature varies greatly.
While a newborn puppy is not yet able to regulate its own temperature.
In addition, the puppy has little fat under the skin and its insulation is therefore poor.

A healthy puppy grows approximately 10% per day. A view of growth is essential. Puppies should therefore be weighed every 12 hours in the first week. In the second and third weeks of life, every 24 hours is sufficient. Furthermore, careful attention is paid to liveliness, dirty eyes, sniffling, sneezing, coughing, blood in feces or urine, etc.
After each feeding, the area around the anus and urinary opening is massaged with a piece of cotton wool, after which the puppy usually quickly voids urine and feces.

Calculation example A puppy has a birth weight of 500 grams.
This weight should double in the first 10 days.

The puppy must therefore grow 500 grams in 10 days.
This is 50 grams per day.
1 gram of growth requires 16 kilojoules of energy.
800 kilojoules of energy are then required per day.
Suppose that 1 ml of milk replacer contains 6.1 kilojoules of energy (can be requested from the manufacturer), then 800/6.1 = 131 ml of milk replacer is needed per day.
This is given in 8 times, which amounts to approximately 16.4 ml of milk replacer per time.
This must also fit because a puppy weighing 500 grams has a maximum stomach capacity of approximately 35 ml.