BREEDING AND RAISING OF PUPPIES. 163 



thrive, but in fact dwindle away. When Spratt's Puppy Food is used in a kennel 

 there is no prospect of either of these evils, if the food is prepared in the proper 

 manner and ordinary attention is paid to matters of detail. In the first place 

 infant puppies should be fed frequently, .every care being at the same time taken 

 to avoid their stomachs being overtaxed. Then, too, it must be remembered that 

 even the very best of cooked food is apt to turn sour and become unwholesome 

 if allowed to stand, too long, or if the vessels it is- kept in are not perfectly clean. 

 The stomachs of young puppies are so easily upset that too much care cannot 

 be exercised in the preparation of their food. An indigestible diet is no doubt 

 responsible for many untimely deaths among young stock. 



Provided that all goes well with the whelps, they will begin to crawl about 

 soon after their eyes open, which will be at the age of nine days. 



When the pups are a day old the mother should be encouraged to leave them 

 for an hour's daily exercise; but this should never be of a violent character, likely 

 to cause milk fever. 



When the pups are six to seven weeks of age the weaning should commence, 

 anil it is a good plan to commence this by removal of the bitch for a few hours 

 at first, and afterward by keeping her apart the whole day, only permitting her 

 to be with her family at night. The pups should then be fed on goat's or cow's 

 milk, boiled, with one-third as much warm water added and bread crumbled and 

 soaked in it and given while still slightly warm. I prefer condensed milk to 

 either, which is sure to be uniform and not as conducive to worms, as cow's 

 milk. This should be slightly reduced with warm water. After a few days, and 

 when the pups have taken to this diet a little meal may be used instead of bread; 

 oatmeal, wheat middlings and cornmeal, mixed, is good; and in case of looseness 

 of the bowels a little rice should be substituted. At this period it is also well to 

 add a little lime water to the milk or give fish scraps, for this supplies phos- 

 phorus necessary for bone forming. If fish is given be careful and sure that all 

 bcnes are first removed. . Pups thus fed rarely get rickets, or the giving way of 

 the pasterns or lower leg joints, because the bone is not strong enough to carry 

 the weight of the body. This should never occur in any well-regulated kennel 

 where the pups are properly nourished, but if it does, two-thirds of lime water 

 with the milk, a teaspoonful of cod liver oil twice daily, or more if the breed is a 

 large one, will soon remedy it. After awhile soups and a little vegetable matter 

 may be substituted. 



I give puppies when weaning them boiled milk in which some bread has been 

 well mixed and soaked, gravy with bread mixed in it chicken gravy they eat 

 with a relish and a little later on, add to the milk and bread, or gravy and 

 bread, just a little cooked, and- cut up fine, beef or mutton. Remember, however, 

 that after a pup once gets a taste of meat that it is very liable to want meat and 

 refuse everything else. See article on FEEDING. 



In case of the mother dying a few days after birth of her puppies, always 

 use condensed milk thinned with warm water and add lime water at the rate of a 

 teaspoonful for each puppy. Lime water is one of the best worm destroyers for 

 young puppies. 



ShouJd a nrbther dog lose her milk or not have enough at any time after a 

 puppy has its eyes open, make a gruel of corn starch, putting a little sugar in it; 

 teach the little fellows to eat it, which can be readily done by putting their noses 

 in it and allowing them to lick their lips, and you will find them to soon learn 

 to like it and thrive on it. Or, feed them with Spratt's Orphan Puppy Food, as 

 mentioned previously. 



