Care of the Newborn Puppy

Helpful hints and tips that have worked well for us :
One important fact that is often overlooked is that a
puppy needs a nice warm, clean, draft free environment.
Remember, that little one came from a 101-102 degree
environment. What is comfortable for you is probably much
too cool for a newborn puppy. We keep our new moms in a
solid crate, always covered to keep out any drafts. At three
weeks of age we generally move them to a larger area,
but we still make sure that it is draft free.
Remember a chilled puppy will generally not try to nurse
and also it cannot digest any milk. Gradually warm the pup.
At times, such as the story of Stuart Little, we have had
to intervene and take over the care and feeding of a pup.
Each puppy is different, so what may work well for one,
may not work at all for another. I guess this is where
a little experience can really help.
When we began raising Stuart he was a newborn pup. We
began feeding him every two hours, but soon found that
with one so tiny, his birth weight was one ounce, that this
was not enough. So we fed Stuart every hour and a half,
around the clock. Eventually we were able to extend the
time to two hours, then three, etc, but this was a long
process that lasted for weeks. Stuart did not have a very
good sucking reflex, so we "assisted" him, by feeding him
with a syringe with a tiny nipple on it. This can be a
very dangerous way to feed, you have to use extreme
caution not to force too much milk too fast, I cannot
stress this enough. Go very, very slow.
It was also a hard task to keep Stuart warm enough. We
were up feeding him so often that we were able to keep him
warm with rubber gloves, filled with hot water wrapped in
hand towels. Stuart would climb up on the gloves and
sleep in between the fingers of the glove.
We did have a period of time were Stuart refused to eat at
all and I had to tube feed him. Again we fed every hour
and a half. The amount to tube feed is generally 1 cc per
each ounce of body weight. Stuart started off with 1 cc
at each feeding. Fortunately this only lasted a couple of
days and Stuart was back on the syringe.
A pup can also become dehydrated quite easily. We have had
to give a puppy fluids subq to rehydrate them. Unless this
is something that you are familiar with, this is probably
best left to a licensed veterinarian. To check for
dehydration, gently pinch the skin on the back of the
pups neck or shoulders.In a well hydrated pup the skin
will go back down immediately, in a dehydrated pup the
skin will stay up, it doesn't spring back into place.
This is serious, see your vet immediately.
A puppy also has to be helped to urinate and defecate after
each feeding. This is very important. By rubbing the areas
very gently with a warm, damp cotton ball, this should
stimulate the pup as the Mom would.
We began feeding Stuart Pedialite the first day, and then
began feeding milk replacer. We have successfully hand