weening pups

When do you guys stop letting pups suck on there mother? I have my first litter beagle pups that are 5 weeks old. They have taken pretty good to eating blended puppy food with warm water and I have been keeping the mother outside during the day for almost a week now. Just trying to figure out when I can start drying her off so I Can start hunting her again.

I take them off soon as they start eating. Usually 4 weeks they really start eating great on their own and by 5 weeks she(mother) has had enough.....You can feed them better then her anyway.......A real good puppy food and make sure to worm them at 2,4,6,& 8 weeks with a safe puppy wormer such as nemex2.....anything pyrantal based....and plenty of water! Quicker she dries up the better shape she be in....hope this helps!

Thanks bill. I was thinking I was close to drying her off. I have wormed them twice so far at 2 and 4 weeks and planned to at 6 and 8. When do you give them there shots? The vet told me 6 weeks. Then when I went to get the wormer the vet tech said 8 weeks.

I do 8, 12, & 16 weeks.....3 doses of 7 ways and first Rabies at 16 weeks which is good for the first year......So doing it a bit earlier is fine as long as they're spread out a month or so apart....The colstum milk from the bitch gives them antibodies enough to substain them for a bit against most of what your vaccinating for but wears off as they get older so the idea is to build their body up with small amounts to recognize the virus enough to fight it themselves......

Thanks bill!!

Lance make sure you get those shots into them Parvo is going around here again. Don't let a lot people handle them till you get at least one set of shots into them. Good luck

Thanks clay. I didnt realize it was going around in our area again. I know some people who lost dogs in the past from it