PRACTICAL GREYHOUND BREEDING 83 



But now we must speak of the process of weaning, which we 

 have somewhat anticipated. Should it unfortunately happen 

 that the mother's milk dries up suddenly and that no foster-bitch 

 is at hand to continue the nursing — a mishap that may occur 

 as early as the first week — recourse must be had to the feeding- 

 bottle, and Dr. Ridge's food and Swiss milk will be found as 

 good as anything. Cow's milk, we feel convinced, is not a 

 good food for dogs, but if given it should be first boiled and 

 then diluted with a fifth part of water. The bottle-feeding 

 must be very carefully attended to, and should only be tempo- 

 rary ; for in the case of valuable whelps — and we trust no 

 man would be so foolish as to breed those that are not 

 presumably valuable — the country should be scoured for a 

 foster-bitch ; but when the milk supply fails in the fifth week 

 or later, an attempt at hand-rearing is more likely to prove 

 successful, as by that time the little ones will make an 

 effort to feed themselves. As soon as their noses have been 

 dipped in the basin, and their appetites thus whetted, many 

 dog-breeders would begin to give them bread and milk ; a hope- 

 less diet, and one that would, in a very brief space of time, pro- 

 duce what are vulgarly termed ' pot-bellies ' and bowed backs — a 

 state of things brought about by the internal parasites whose 

 presence is, our experience tells us, directly traceable to raw 

 cow's milk. Dr. Ridge's food, to which glycerine in the pro- 

 portion of a teaspoonful to a pint has been added, will prove 

 staple food, and after the sixth week Brand's extract of beef 

 (in the jelly form) may be given ; but bread, meal, soaked 

 biscuit or solid meats are carefully to be avoided until after the 

 eighth week, when the weaning proper begins; then brown 

 bread with shreds of well-boiled sheep's head may be made 

 into a partially solid mess with the broth of the latter, and even 

 the Swiss milk should cease. Now is the time when a careful 

 look-out for internal parasites must be kept, and the attendant 

 must not cease his vigilance because the faeces contain none 

 of these pests, as they are sometimes present for months in 

 the intestinal canal without signs, except those produced on 



