Royal Canin Babydog MilkBirth to weaning · all sizes

This is the product you hope not to need and are very glad to have at two in the morning. An orphaned litter, a bitch who has had a caesarean, mastitis, or simply too many puppies for the milk available — in all of those, hand-rearing starts immediately and cow's milk will not do it.

The formula is built to approximate bitch's milk rather than to be a generic pet milk: 33% protein and 39% fat, with DHA at 1 g/kg from fish oil for brain and vision development, arachidonic acid from fungal oil, taurine at 2.2 g/kg, and fructo-oligosaccharides for a gut that has never digested anything. Newborn puppies need feeding every three hours around the clock in the first week, which is why the table below is stated per feed.

• Healthy Growth
• Brain & Vitality
• Complete Nutrition

Ingredients

Milk retentate, milk fat, refined palm oil (from sustainable sources), whey protein, refined soya oil, refined coconut oil, minerals, fructo-oligosaccharides (0.5%), fish oil (source of DHA), fungal oil (source of arachidonic acid). Additives (per kg) — Nutritional additives: Vitamin A 25,000 IU · Vitamin D3 1,500 IU · 3b103 (Iron) 100 mg · 3b201 (Iodine) 4 mg · 3b405 (Copper) 15 mg · 3b503 (Manganese) 80 mg · 3b605 (Zinc) 190 mg · 3b810 (Selenium) 0.43 mg · Taurine 2.2 g. Antioxidants.

Looking after it

Store the tin in a cool, dry place and seal it after every use. Make each feed fresh; do not keep made-up milk. Feed the puppy on her front with her head level — **never on her back like a human baby**, because milk goes into the lungs and that is usually fatal. Keep her warm, at 30–32 °C in the first week; a cold puppy cannot digest. Stimulate her to toilet with a warm damp cloth after every feed until about three weeks. Hand-rearing is demanding and things go wrong quickly — stay in touch with your vet, and get any puppy who stops gaining weight seen the same day.