How to Care for a Young Puppy
📝 Summary
Puppies have immature immune and digestive systems, so feed small, frequent, easy-to-digest meals and keep them warm, clean, and indoors until vaccinated. A proper vaccine and deworming schedule is the backbone of early health.
1 Diet
A newly weaned pup’s gut is not fully developed, and a sudden change of home or food easily brings poor appetite, vomiting, and diarrhea. Offer easy-to-digest, palatable food — some milk, rice water, fruit juice, and vegetable broth at first, moving gradually to puppy pâté as it grows. Never feed bones or raw meat. Puppies don’t self-regulate intake and will overeat, so give small amounts often to avoid indigestion.
2 Housing
Keep the sleeping area clean and disinfect it regularly. Puppies regulate temperature poorly, so add bedding for warmth in winter and keep them out of direct sun in summer — warm in winter, cool in summer.
3 Cleaning
Avoid baths before about six weeks; use a towel wipe instead. After that, keep water out of the ears, use a pet-specific shampoo, and towel-dry then blow-dry thoroughly to prevent chills.
4 Exercise
Puppies are lively and love to move. Until their vaccines are complete, keep them indoors — home play builds Bond with people, speeds metabolism, boosts resistance, and sharpens agility and alertness.
5 Vaccination
Generally, pups 35–45 days old can get the distemper-parvo (two-way) shot — home-raised pups carry maternal antibodies for 45 days, so start at 45–49 days — then a combination vaccine around two months, with a second combo four weeks later. Rabies is required at three months or older. After the first year’s series, an annual booster covers rabies and the four-way vaccine.
6 Deworming
Dogs carry many parasites: common internal ones include roundworms, hookworms, whipworms, and tapeworms; external ones include fleas, lice, mites, and ticks. Some harbor zoonotic pathogens, so regular deworming is essential.
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