# 5 week old puppy feeding help!!!



## strongmasseters

So I got my second from some breeders who I don't believe knew what they were doing. They told me the puppy was older than it actually is. I took the 5 WEEK OLD pup to the vet and got him dewormed and checked up. He's healthy, but I am having problems feeding him. The vet said either wet dog food or moistened puppy chow should work. He said the last resort is to buy gerber chicken food for babies and syringe it down his throat.

Here is my question: I don't know how much food he should be eating and the vet never told me. I looked on the back of the wet puppy chow can and it says 6-8 oz a day. Across 4-6 feedinga that should be 1-2 oz per meal. He can only eat 1 to three spoons of it before he's done. Is this normal?

Also if it's relevant: he's a flub red pitbull from the gotti line


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## angelbaby

What is a flub red pitbull? and if it is gotti line you dont have an american pitbull terrier at all you have an american bully. did he come with papers? alot of times people who are breeding mutts will just throw a bloodline they know about on a dog like razorsedge or gotti so unless the papers say gotti I wouldnt believe the breeder. 

For feeding just feed what ever he will eat, puppys I let go wild with the food we feed 4x a day at that age and just let them eat, they have small tummys so it fills up alot quicker which is why feeding more often is needed at this age. 

Wet food is fine but I prefer using kibble and soaking it with warm goats milk { or milk replacer if you cant get goats milk} . if you feed a good quality kibble it does more for them then most soft food will. at 5 weeks they would normally be eating soaked kibble anyways. you can offer a bowl of goats milk if he wasn\t to drink that as well. 
as he ages soak the kibble less and less. right now you may have to soak 15-20 minutes or so , then maybe next week cut it down 5-10 minutes and by 7-8 weeks they shouldn't need it soaked at all , but go with how your pup is growing, if those teeth aren't all in by then you may have to soak longer.

since you have this pup so young you may have some issues when it comes to training and when he hits that nipping phase. use the search at the top and look into bite inhibition there are some good threads you may want to read into. This breeder really should be reported from the sound of things, with the way you described there care to how young they are. pups learn alot of how to play and interact through there litter mates and mom, big reason they shouldn't leave until 7-8 weeks min. They usually stop nursing 4-5 weeks but still need that time to develop manners.


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## angelbaby

Just a note, if you cant get goats milk or milk replacer you can use just plain water, was just stating what our prefrences are to use.


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## strongmasseters

angelbaby said:


> What is a flub red pitbull? and if it is gotti line you dont have an american pitbull terrier at all you have an american bully. did he come with papers? alot of times people who are breeding mutts will just throw a bloodline they know about on a dog like razorsedge or gotti so unless the papers say gotti I wouldnt believe the breeder.
> 
> For feeding just feed what ever he will eat, puppys I let go wild with the food we feed 4x a day at that age and just let them eat, they have small tummys so it fills up alot quicker which is why feeding more often is needed at this age.
> 
> Wet food is fine but I prefer using kibble and soaking it with warm goats milk { or milk replacer if you cant get goats milk} . if you feed a good quality kibble it does more for them then most soft food will. at 5 weeks they would normally be eating soaked kibble anyways. you can offer a bowl of goats milk if he wasn\t to drink that as well.
> as he ages soak the kibble less and less. right now you may have to soak 15-20 minutes or so , then maybe next week cut it down 5-10 minutes and by 7-8 weeks they shouldn't need it soaked at all , but go with how your pup is growing, if those teeth aren't all in by then you may have to soak longer.
> 
> since you have this pup so young you may have some issues when it comes to training and when he hits that nipping phase. use the search at the top and look into bite inhibition there are some good threads you may want to read into. This breeder really should be reported from the sound of things, with the way you described there care to how young they are. pups learn alot of how to play and interact through there litter mates and mom, big reason they shouldn't leave until 7-8 weeks min. They usually stop nursing 4-5 weeks but still need that time to develop manners.


My iPhone messed up what I was writing, he's a ful bred pitbull from the gotti line mixed with a normal apbt


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## angelbaby

what lines does his papers say? would be able to tell you. Makes no sense for someone to take apbt to a bully.


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## strongmasseters

Yes I agree. The guy lied when he told me his age. Also about the papers, he is papered with the adba which isn't to good if I believe. I have seen the dad and he looks gotti to me but you never know.


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## angelbaby

adba is a good registry but they still register american bullys as APBT's so need to see the names on that ped to know. Gotti is saying American bully , that isnt an APBT line.


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## strongmasseters

angelbaby said:


> adba is a good registry but they still register american bullys as APBT's so need to see the names on that ped to know. Gotti is saying American bully , that isnt an APBT line.


Oh I didn't know that. I heard there was controversy over what type of pitbull he is. I read in a thread he was an amstaff mixed with an apbt. The dad was super buff but he still had his tapered pitbull look. The papers say Elpekes Ted Bundy from the dad.


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## angelbaby

whats the mom say? where do you see gotti? if you post the ped up we can help you read it and tell you for sure what you have.


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## strongmasseters

angelbaby said:


> whats the mom say? where do you see gotti? if you post the ped up we can help you read it and tell you for sure what you have.


Yea I can do that. I'm just on my phone and everything is working super slow. I wanted to post pics up but I gotta upload it onto a site and it takes forever. I'll try when I get home on my comp


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## strongmasseters

I attached pics of him, as well as mom and dad.

I think hes going to be a BIG boy.


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## angelbaby

Cute pup he is a fatty. I cant tell bloodlines by looking at mom and dad, they dont seem to be ADBA style APBT's though , I would guess some bully blood in there but would really need to see the pedigree. Love the puppys though. Did your friend get the brindle one too?


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## strongmasseters

angelbaby said:


> Cute pup he is a fatty. I cant tell bloodlines by looking at mom and dad, they dont seem to be ADBA style APBT's though , I would guess some bully blood in there but would really need to see the pedigree. Love the puppys though. Did your friend get the brindle one too?


Yes. Luckily my lease ends this month so as soon as I had the chance I went for it lol. Shes such a sweet heart, I told him if he didn't want her I wouldn't mind taking her off his hands...but he refused.

As for paperwork, I can get them anytime...the breeder wanted to charge me 100 dollars extra for the paperwork. In all honesty, I don't care what he is breed wise...I didn't need the papers cause I am not going to sell him. Yes he is a fatty. He wobbles alot. Hes also stsrting to eat the food I got him little by little, but he drinks ZERO water?

I am just a worry wart.


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## angelbaby

Lol , he doesnt drink at all? but his food is soaked right or wet? he will get fluis that way too. Just keep offering the water though. if you think he is going to get dehydrated you can get him checked out at the vet , im sure your just worrying lol like a 1st kid by the sounds of it. 

Drives me nuts when breeders want to sell the "papers" for so much on a dog, they cost them like $20 to register the whole litter, greedy BYB. I get you though on not needing them , majority of people dont need them but its always fun to see what is in there and have that info.


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## strongmasseters

angelbaby said:


> Lol , he doesnt drink at all? but his food is soaked right or wet? he will get fluis that way too. Just keep offering the water though. if you think he is going to get dehydrated you can get him checked out at the vet , im sure your just worrying lol like a 1st kid by the sounds of it.
> 
> Drives me nuts when breeders want to sell the "papers" for so much on a dog, they cost them like $20 to register the whole litter, greedy BYB. I get you though on not needing them , majority of people dont need them but its always fun to see what is in there and have that info.


Yea thats why I didn't buy them! My king charles spaniel had papers and the breeder gave them to us for free. When he said a hundred, I was like whaaaaaaa. Yea the food I have him on is canned natural wet chicken breast from blue? It was a brand from petsmart. I went to walmart and it was all trash. I took him to the vet today and the vet says hes a healthy boy...got his first deworm today too. He pees EVERYWHERE so I guess hes not that dehydrated LOL.


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## strongmasseters

Ok so I bought him some goats milk from the grocery store and he is eating more and more. My problem is with the kibble. I tried to soak it in the milk (it was cold, maybe thats the problem) and it doesn't soak up the kibble.

I have him eating a slur of: canned puppy food and kibble soaked in the milk. He LOVES the milk, so it is working...do you heat the milk up before letting it soak with the kibble? Also how long should it take. The puppy food I got him takes forever to soak anything up. Its good kibble too.


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## angelbaby

ya sometimes i smash the kibble up in a ziplock bag first and then soak in warm milk , seems to help . I think I had to soak atleast 15-20 minutes before hand, it does take a bit. but within the next couple weeks here he should be able to be weened onto unsoaked kibble so it isnt for too long.


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## strongmasseters

angelbaby said:


> ya sometimes i smash the kibble up in a ziplock bag first and then soak in warm milk , seems to help . I think I had to soak atleast 15-20 minutes before hand, it does take a bit. but within the next couple weeks here he should be able to be weened onto unsoaked kibble so it isnt for too long.


Thank you very much for the help! He is now eating decently, I think the goat milk was a deal breaker for him. I can't wait till hes 3 months so he can eat normally.


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## angelbaby

By 8 weeks he should be able to eat normal kibble , all ours did by that age. You can keep on with the goats milk if you want, we always stopped at 8 weeks.


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## strongmasseters

angelbaby said:


> By 8 weeks he should be able to eat normal kibble , all ours did by that age. You can keep on with the goats milk if you want, we always stopped at 8 weeks.


Yea I probably will stop with the milk asap. I read that the calcium in the milk can causes growth spurts in dogs, and I don't know how healthy that would be. I am just so relieved that he is eating. He got over his litter mate and mom pretty fast...he runs into my lap and falls asleep. I took a nap next to him and he woke me up by licking my face.


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