7 week old puppy feeding help please

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My younger brother and his girlfriend have just had a 7 week old chihuahua puppy, I know it's too young and they should have done more homework but they are young and obviously where a little naive, the woman who sold it was by all accounts a toothless Baghdad breeding puppies for a profit, she told them they had been taken away from the mum at 3 weeks as she was really poorly and wasn't going to make it and shouldn't have had another litter but accidentally got pregnant (alarm bells anyone?)
Anyway.... my point, she told them just feed it cows milk and dog biscuits, this didn't sit right with them so they have come to me, owner of no dogs ever, to ask for help! So please, any advise, it seems to be quite inquisitive and playful but I'm sure it needs a better diet than cows milk

That's not disastrously young for most breeds however it's very young for a chihuahua, reputable breeders don't let them go until they're 12 weeks old and for good reason.

Has the puppy been to the vet? They should be able to advise regarding feeding and also on stuff like worming as it sounds like the puppy won't have been on a proper worming schedule.

I'd also be inclined to get in touch with the breed club and see if they can offer any help or advice, or point you towards someone else who can. They do need fairly careful feeding as they can be prone to hypoglycaemia, especially when they're so small, so I'd really try and get some advice from someone very experienced with the breed.

In the meantime definitely don't use cow's milk, it can cause an upset stomach which you definitely don't want in such a small puppy. Goat's milk is better but ideally you want a proper milk replacer like Whelpi or Lactol. Both are available on Amazon and I'm pretty sure Pets At Home sell Lactol. For now I'd use either a high quality puppy food (dry or wet), a high quality all-lifestages food or a decent puppy-suitable complete raw mixed into a mush with the milk replacer. Little and often, at least four meals a day if not more. If the puppy is fine eating the mush then they can reduce the amount of milk replacer until the puppy is entirely on solid food.

I'd also recommend you brother and his girlfriend have a look at the Puppy Culture programme. This puppy hasn't had a good start in life and there's a lot they can be doing to offset that.

Whatever they do they shouldn't give the poor little thing cows milk.

Preferably they should continue to feed the same solid food that the 'breeder' has been feeding it, so they don't upset it's stomach. However, if the woman has been giving it milk and dog biscuits they should drop the milk and just add some warm water or clear chicken broth to it.

Once puppy has settled in and is a bit older they can gradually, over a couple of weeks, change to a better quality food.

They need to take the puppy to the vet to get it checked over and get it's inoculations organised.

They sound as if they have no idea what they're doing so they need to inform themselves about how to deal with a small puppy.

Tell them to start googling and try to find out how to look after a small vulnerable creature that should still be with it's mother and litter mates. Something they really should have done long before getting a puppy.

Ah see you've already covered it Cornflake.

Listen to Cornflake OP. She's wise in the way of dogs.

Thank you guys, they are off to the vets Monday morning, I'm glad they had the sense to question what the woman told them and not just give the poor thing milk, I'm sure pets at home is open until 8 so will tell them to pop along, and get them to send me a picture for the thread 😬

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I'm a vet nurse at 7 weeks old pup will be fully weaned and will not need puppy milk replacement . Water is sufficient. It will only fill uo the puo abd prevebt it eating the necessary amount of food. James wellbeloved is goid as is carnagan - very expensive but with a tiny dog it will be ok if use dry food but soak it in warm water. Four or five meals of about a heaped teaspoon (per feed) a day - teaspoon and a half after a few days
Chip's are notoriously fussy but don't give treats or let pup dictate it diesnt like food. If necessary, feeding the pup with its food by putting hand near bowl and pretending to eat like another dog would might work.

And get them to go online and Google 'petplan free insurance ' they can get free insurance for four weeks and they don't need to take up the policy after that time but You, with a dog with dubious breeding I would tell them insurance would be worth having

Chi's not Chip's!

Is there any chance they could get to the vets sooner? With a normal eight week old puppy I let them have a few days at least to settle in before taking them but with such a small, fragile puppy who has come from a dodgy breeder I'd want to get them checked out as soon as possible just to be on the safe side.

They also need to be careful that the puppy is warm enough, chihuahua puppies can struggle to maintain their body temperature and obviously at that sort of age they should still be sleeping in a heap with their mum and siblings.

And the food is canagan mistyped above