How to wean 4-week-old puppies onto dry food with few teeth?
Updated On September 23rd, 2025
Pet's info: Dog | Yorkshire Terrier | Female | unspayed | 2 years old
My Yorkie Poo litter is 4 weeks old and I'm trying to wing the puppies off the mother's milk and eat dog food. Do you have any ways or recommendation on how? The puppies have a few teeth not many.
4 Answers
Most Helpful Answer
Published on November 5th, 2016
Great question! To help them wean and to get used to dry food, I would soak a high quality puppy formulated dry food in water water until soft. Then mix that with puppy formula such as KMR to make a mush the consistency of oatmeal. Over the next two weeks, gradually increase the amount of dry puppy food and decrease the amount of water and KMR you use until they are eating the dry puppy food only.
2Pet Parents found this answer helpful
Related Answers from Veterinarians
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Published on April 7th, 2018
Good questions! You can start weaning Soska's puppies onto a puppy formulated food. It's important that their food is for puppies as they need higher amounts of calories, calcium, and protein to meet their growth needs. Feed them according to the package instructions on their bag of food. To help them wean and to get used to dry food, I would soak a high quality puppy formulated dry food in warm water until soft. Then mix that with puppy formula such as KMR to make a mush the consistency of oatmeal. Over the next three weeks, gradually increase the amount of dry puppy food and decrease the amount of water and KMR you use until they are eating the dry puppy food only. You can leave water out for them, but they will still be nursing and getting both water and puppy formula from the puppy mush, so they likely won't drink it at first. As they start having more dry puppy food and less water and KMR added to the mush, encourage them to drink water. Fill a shallow pie pan with water, and add some ice cubes to it. Puppies are curious, and will lick the ice cubes, thus drinking water at the same time. I hope this helps!
2Pet Parents found this answer helpful
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Published on March 15th, 2019
You can start weaning Joey onto normal puppy food. To help him wean and to get used to dry food, I would soak a high quality puppy formulated dry food in warm water until soft. Then mix that with puppy formula such as KMR to make a mush the consistency of oatmeal. Over the next two weeks, gradually increase the amount of dry puppy food and decrease the amount of water and KMR you use until he is eating the dry puppy food only.
1Pet Parents found this answer helpful
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Published on November 8th, 2018
I recommend the milk replacer. I would soak a high quality puppy formulated dry food in warm water until soft. Then mix that with puppy formula such as KMR to make a mush the consistency of oatmeal. Over the next two weeks, gradually increase the amount of dry puppy food and decrease the amount of water and KMR you use until they are eating the dry puppy food only. Best of luck, I hope this helps!
2Pet Parents found this answer helpful
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