We seem to have got the balance by giving them the special formula every second meal and normal puppy milk on the alternate ones. They do try feeding from Shadow in the meantime but there is always one out by rotation being bottle fed. The other thing my Mistress is doing is making sure Cuddles gets on a teat at the beginning and for the first five minutes or so warding off all contenders who try to take it from her. Cuddles is not so happy as the others at bottle feeding and as she is the one who needs it most this at least gives her a good chance of eating properly. It’s working, as you will see from the weights. When they feed from Shadow normally, the whole process takes about 15 minutes. When my Mistress bottle feeds it takes at least half an hour to work through them all. It also 
means that my Mistress’s arms are being shredded by puppy claws as you will see from the photo. She is taking them to the vet tomorrow morning to have them clipped. That’s the good news, the bad news is that I have to accompany them as I need my annual jabs. I’ve had to accompany the young pups to the vets from previous litters. I’m just glad that Shadow trusts me to do it.
Today’s weights – Chekov, who somehow is finding enough milk from Shadow and doesn’t want a lot of supplement, gained 50g to reach 1240g. Casanova who accepted some help added 80g to reach 1150g. Cracker had some supplement but not a great deal, she added 40g to reach 1080g. Cinderella who would greedily eat everything going, wasn’t allowed so much as she seemed to be doing ok. However she will get a little more today so that will make her happy. She added 30g to reach 1070g. Cosette had the most help. She got the hang of bottle feeding and I am pleased to say she has reached 1kg having added 80g. It was Cuddles we were concerned for and I am delighted to say that despite having only a little formula, the policy of giving her time undisturbed has meant she has added 92g and is now 906g. We don’t want her to grow too fast, but that is on the whole very good news. We’ve managed to leave the roll bars in so far, but when Cuddles reaches 1kg the plan is for those to come out.
Today’s video is here http://youtu.be/t8Pjx1lL0S0
Alfie’s Diary – the Book is available at Amazon UK –https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00583ZGSA
You can find short stories to read at www.alfiedog.com