How to Safely Wean Puppies with Rice Cereal: A Step-by-Step Guide

Things You'll Need

• Puppy formula

• Water

• Infant rice cereal

• Shallow bowl or saucer

• Spoon

Feeding puppies rice cereal is a simple task.

When weaning puppies from their mother's milk, you can use rice cereal to help them get used to to solid foods. Beginning anywhere from the time the puppies are two to four weeks old, you can begin weaning them by feeding them rice cereal. Rice cereal should only be used briefly as puppies need to learn to eat puppy food, which is designed to meet the daily nutritional needs of growing dogs. However, it can be used as a stepping stone between milk or puppy formula and puppy food.

Step 1

Mix up a bottle of the puppy formula powder with water according to the package directions. Use a commercial puppy formula designed for newborn puppies. If the puppies are orphans, use the same brand of formula they are used to drinking.

Step 2

Pour a small amount of the puppy formula into a shallow bowl or saucer.

Step 3

Shake a tablespoonful of flakes of infant rice cereal into the puppy formula. Stir.

Step 4

Check the consistency of the rice cereal and formula. It should still be fairly thin and mostly liquid.

Step 5

Set the bowl of rice cereal and formula in front of the puppies. If they are uninterested, you may put a little on your finger and allow the puppies to lick it off.

Step 6

At each feeding add more rice cereal, making the formula and cereal mixture a little thicker each time. When the puppies are eating a fairly thick, solid blend of rice cereal and formula they should be ready for commercial puppy food, which can be ground and mixed in with the rice cereal to help them slowly make the transition.