5 week old puppy - advice needed!

orlao

12 years ago, I ended up with a 5 week old JRT as she was the runt of a litter, produced by a year old b****h already on her 2nd litter.....the reason I took her so young was that the mother had stopped producing milk, the pups were being fed on standard dog food and she was being pushed out by the rest of the litter and all the pups (and mum) has a heavy worm burden and were crawling with fleas and I couldn't watch this puppy die slowly.

She has turned out to be a fantastic dog with no longterm health problems (she was born with a double hernia which was corrected when she was spayed at 10 months) whose only legacy seems to be is that she is very small still. She had puppy food for longer than usual for a small dog as she was so tiny and really benefited from living with my older JRT, who to this day still "mothers" her :rotfl:I do remember that one of her 4 meals a day for the first few months was scrambled egg as recommended by the vet but tbh once the fleas and the worms were sorted, the only challenge was waiting for her to reach 1kg in weight so she could have the hernia op, microchip and spay in one go....she was treated as a normal puppy.

The only thing I really struggled with was housetraining (might have been just her though;)) as she was happy to go in her bed etc and took the best part of a year to reliably housetrain and that she got very very spoilt by other people because she was so tiny and cute:D

Fire_Fox

Becles wrote: »

If he likes the dried food, it's best to wean him completely onto dried food. Dried is much better than tinned, especially if you buy one of the better brands such as the Eukanuba you are using. Crunching biscuits cleans their teeth as they eat, and there is more goodness and less fillers in dried compared to tinned food. You only have to feed a little amount of premium dried food per day so although a bag seems expensive, it actually works out comparable to tins and cheaper sacks of dried food.

AFAIK there is no evidence that kibble cleans dogs or cats teeth, which is why many vets are now recommending raw bones. Kibble is not necessarily better than tinned - many dried foods contain large amounts of cheap fillers (wheat/ rice/ maize) which dogs only need in moderation and cats not at all. Cheap wet food generally contains more meat by dry weight than kibble, although obviously that won't necessarily be the best quality meat. I agree completely that premium dried foods are better value than the cheap stuff as it doesn't all come straight out the other end!! :eek:

samboette

Thank you to all that have replied!!

We think he's a Yorkie or Yorkie X but probably won't ever know to be honest!!

We did try thinking of a solution in keeping them together but we couldn't come up with anything practical to suit all of us, seeing as we all work similar times of the day. Fortunately 2 have been homed together!!

We have got insurance ready to start with Marks & Spencers when he's old enough (8 weeks old), we've looked at plenty of policies online and thought they looked the best one or is there any others you good folk may recommend!?! However, he will also be insured free for 4 weeks when we take him to the vets for his injections, they do a complete primary and secondary injection package with worming and flea treatment and consultations for key stages of his development. Also included is microchipping all for £41, so i'm quite happy with that!!

Yeah the RSPCA continue to disappoint, we couldn't believe they would do such a thing, hence us rehoming them, then again, my Council are equally as useless, we're just glad the call came into our office and not the main centre or else they would have been PTS. Doesn't bear thinking about!!

I have pics but but not sure how to post them on here.

Mutter_2

Well samboette a puppy at five weeks who looks like a Yorkie could well be an Airdale:eek:
I gave a wry smile when you said he's a joy.
At five weeks he will be, wait till he has the toe out of your favourite shoes. Munches the remote control and swings from your curtains.

Try saying NO or LEAVE whilst collapsing in a heap of laughter.

My Dalmation used to think it great to jump on my mother's bra on the washing line and boing, boing up and down.:rotfl:

I love pups and wish you all the fun in the World with him. He's a lucky boy.

ETA, Lowis on here praised AXA for her poor Timmy, which I believe is M&S and in RL this week I have heard they have been brill.

Fire_Fox

I can't imagine these puppies are full breed anything - they were clearly unwanted and, even if you didn't much want them, you'd be sensible to try to sell breed puppies.

Sagz_2

There seems to be 2 threads about Alfie.... I replied on the other one!

Good Luck Op xx

UKTigerlily

Please don't feed Iams/Eukanuba, it's your choice of course but they have a terrible history of VERY cruel & unnecessary animal experiments/testing (I don't know if they still do, but they did!). It's good there are people like you who can & will take these poor Pups on, shame on the RSPCA! Could you & the others who homed them maybe take them to work everyday? I know four Pups running about won't be any boss's idea of fun but maybe they'd allow a playpen? If not do you have someone at home most of the day as they won't be able to be left for too long at first (Sorry if you already know all of this!), also, a book called The Perfect Puppy by Gwen Bailey is always recommended here so you might like to read reviews on it/get a copy, it's supposed to be really good!

M&S are a good insurer but once the Pup gets to old age I think they then have a % & an excess on any claims, so you pay the excess & x% of the total, which can be expensive. I know that's ages away yet but once he gets to old age if you swapped company any conditions he had wouldn't be covered iyswim. Axa are supposed to be good & do a for life policy & they currently don't have a % when the Pet gets old.

My Dog is with Pet Plan who IMO are the best, they never quibble on claims & many Vets will claim direct from them as they are reliable & pay out quickly, however it can be expensive, mine was £29.88 a month & this year will be £35.40, however last year we did claim more than we paid for the policy!

We definitely need pics, hopefully he will turn out to be a breed or mix of breeds suitable for you, i'd personally start training classes asap with him (Think he'd need his full vaccinations first though so not until about 12-14 weeks?)

Good luck!

cyberbob

UKTigerlily wrote: »

Please don't feed Iams/Eukanuba, it's your choice of course but they have a terrible history of VERY cruel & unnecessary animal experiments/testing

Thats just rubbish and bad propaganda mainly by PETA whos own history is very dodgy at best. If you do proper research into Iams and Eukanuba you will find that there treament of any animals is the same as other pet food manufacturers. What always amazes me when this subject comes up is the amount of people who believe without question what is written on a couple of websites without researching the background (eg whos funding them etc)

I urge anyone who is interested to do there own research and not take everything at face value.

slummymummyof3

We did our pet insurance with Debenhams and there was £40 cash back with Quidco.

It is a whole of life policy and there is no percentage of the bill that you pay.

Mutter_2

Fire_Fox wrote: »

I can't imagine these puppies are full breed anything - they were clearly unwanted and, even if you didn't much want them, you'd be sensible to try to sell breed puppies.

Tongue was firmly in cheek Fire Fox. I am sure OP can see the difference between a Yorkshire Terrier and an Airdale Hound.

Whatever he is, he will be great fun.