My Labrador had to have a Caesarian and isn’t producing milk to feed her three pups. We are bottle feeding which they seem to hate and won’t suck. Once we finish feeding they immediately start sucking from their mum despite no apparent signs of milk. They are almost a week old, been seen by the vet and are consistently putting on weight. However we should soon drop the three hour feeds to five hourly and increase the volume but it takes ages to get the minimum already into them. Any advice please on what to try? Also worried about my lab who is constantly being sucked but isn’t producing milk. She is very diligent about staying with them and cleaning them. Thanks for any advice/experience.
The more they suckle, the more milk she will produce so do encourage then to suckle as much as possible. I would stay on 2 hourly feeds for as long as you are able. Tube feeding is much much quicker and safer in terms of the risk of them aspirating. Your vet will be able to show you how to tube feed.
