My 5-week-old puppy won't drink water. Should I bottle feed?

At this age, puppies should be starting to drink water, and you have to teach them how to do it. Add an inch of water to low, shallow bowl. Dip a clean finger into the bowl, and press it against the puppy's lips. Once they start licking your finger, you can get them to lick the water from your finger when you are holding it just on the water's surface. Eventually, you won't have to use your finger at all to get them to drink from the water bowl.

They should be able to eat canned puppy food with added water or moistened puppy dry that is made into a gruel. To teach them put some food on your finger and get them to lick it off then gradually have your finger over a flat plate with the food in it so they learn to lap the food. Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach to help you care for your puppies.

Three or four weeks is way too young for a puppy to be separated from its mother! A puppy should not leave it's mother until it's at least eight weeks of age. Canned puppy food has a high moisture content, so Princess will be getting water from eating that food, but I recommend adding water to the canned food to get more water into her system. You can also try mixing the replacement milk in with her canned food. She likely wasn't fully weaned from her mother, and that may be contributing to her not drinking water from a bowl. I will put a link below on how to teach a puppy to drink water from a bowl. I hope this helps! https://pets.thenest.com/could-teach-puppies-drink-water-bowl-5748.html

And in terms of the food -- he should be willing to eat wet food, if not dry food, at this age. So if he's not, I would highly recommend a check up with your vet to make sure everything looks ok. He may just need more time to adjust, but with such a young guy, he can get low blood sugar and dehydration very quickly, so it's important to act sooner rather than later.

At 3 weeks of age, you can actually start introducing wet puppy food. I would wet it down with some puppy milk and put it on a paper plate. This way he can explore the wet food and try some. If your veterinarian evaluated him and say he is physically ok then I would not worry too much that something is wrong. I would just continue with trying to feed him the bottle but also offer and wean him onto the wet food. Thank you for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach.

Hi, thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! Onyx is adorable! At 6 weeks old he can eat puppy food. I know you want to wait but it sounds as though he might not be getting enough nutrition and doesn’t want a bottle which indicates he is weaned. I would get canned puppy food and mix the puppy formula in to it. Feed small frequent meals, 3-4 times per day. I like Purina Proplan, Royal Canin, Iams, and Hill’s Science diet. Good luck

It is very important to have the puppy drink formula. You can try different methods of feeding, such as allowing the puppy to lap - or feeding with a bottle/syringe. If the puppy continues to not accept formula, it needs to be seen by a vet right away.