First Taste of Gruel for The Labradoodle Pups

Recently it has seemed like the pups are hungrier than usual. Plus, Jinx is less interested than feeding them than usual.She takes great care of them throughout the night but daytime is another story. She just wants to have fun with us and be with us. Often I have to call her over to the puppies and lay her down to feed them. Once she gets there, she doesn't seem to mind nursing them, especially if I stay near and pet her. She does seem to be emptying out more quickly and I know the pups are consuming more. 
All of these factors made me decide it was time to begin the weaning process and introduce puppy food. It will take a few days for them to catch on and truly dig in and eat so I wanted to get started and help eliminate some of the feeding burden from Jinx's shoulders. Puppy gruel is just puppy food mixed with water, blended up so there are no large chunks and made watery enough to lap up.
I was amazed at how well they liked it! They all really surprised me with how well they licked it up and how much they took in. 

Here Tate is putting the gruel in the pen. 

A few of the boys immediately approached the foreign substance.

There was some sniffing and tasting.

Then came some good old fashioned chowing down.

You know what surprises me? That puppies naturally learn to lap up liquids. Cool huh? Because really, how would I teach them that?

Here's Scotcheroo. Not a huge fan of the new puppy pen.

"Let me ou-oooot!"

He also was leaning against the pen with long suffering. Look at his cute little messy snout after eating his puppy gruel like a boss!

Although the puppies are used to being contained, the outdoors are very different then the basement and these walls are see through, unlike the puppy pool. So their little worlds are expanding. 

Here's Mama Jinx. Feeding the pups is definitely more intense than it used to be. 

The pups will continue with their mushy puppy food for a while. I will slowly decrease the amount of water and they will slowly learn to chew as their teeth come in. 

Feeding time is a huge mess. Puppies have no idea that they are supposed to keep their paws out of the food. In fact I think they like eating it better when they are nearly submerged in it.

Fortunately, Jinx is happy to help with the clean up.