Newborn Puppy Care Week by Week

Almost everything that goes wrong with a newborn litter traces back to one fact: a puppy under about three weeks old cannot regulate its own body temperature. It has no shiver reflex, almost no fat, and a huge surface area for its size, so it is entirely dependent on the mother, its littermates and the room. That single limitation drives the rest of newborn care — the heat source, the feeding rules, even the order you do things in when a puppy looks unwell. The second most useful habit is a set of scales. This page walks through the first eight weeks in order. If you are still counting down, the free dog pregnancy calculator will give you a due date.

The First 48 Hours

The window that decides most outcomes is shorter than people expect.

Every puppy should nurse within the first two hours. The first milk, colostrum, carries the antibodies that will protect the litter until vaccination, and the gut can only absorb those antibodies for roughly the first 24 hours. A puppy that misses that window is not just hungry, it is unprotected.

Check that each puppy latches, not just that it is near the mother. A puppy pushed off the teat by stronger littermates can look settled while getting nothing.

Weigh everybody within the first hour and write it down. That figure is the baseline against which every later worry is measured.

Expect a small dip. Losing up to about five per cent of birth weight on day one is normal. Losing ten per cent, or still falling on day two, is not.

Leave the mother alone as much as you reasonably can. Interference in the first 48 hours is a common cause of a nervous first-time mother rejecting or crushing puppies. The setup that makes hands-off supervision possible is covered in how to prepare a whelping box.

Temperature Is the Number One Job

Get this wrong and nothing else you do works.

A newborn puppy's body temperature is only about 93–97°F (34–36°C), several degrees below an adult dog's, and it rises gradually over the first four weeks. The puppy cannot generate that heat itself.

The room, not the puppy, has to do the work. The usual approach is a heat lamp or heat pad over one part of the whelping box, so the mother and puppies can move away if they get too warm. Never heat the whole box uniformly.

Buy a thermometer for the box. Guessing by hand is unreliable, and heat lamps produce a far hotter spot directly underneath than people assume.

A chilled puppy must not be fed. This is the rule that saves lives and the one most often broken. Below roughly 93°F (34°C) the gut stops moving, so milk sits in the stomach undigested and can be inhaled or cause bloating. Warm the puppy slowly over one to two hours against your skin or on a covered warm pad, and only feed once it is warm and rooting again.

Warm slowly, never fast. Direct hot water bottles, hairdryers and microwaved heat pads cause burns on skin that cannot move away.

Cold and quiet is more dangerous than cold and crying. A puppy that has stopped complaining is further along, not settled.

Daily Weighing Is Your Best Early Warning

Nothing else spots a fading puppy as early.

Use digital kitchen scales that read to 1 g (0.04 oz) for small breeds, or 5 g for large ones. Grams are the practical unit here because newborn gains are small enough that ounces round them away. Weigh at the same time each day, before a feed if you can.

The benchmark: puppies should roughly double their birth weight by seven to ten days, then continue gaining steadily every single day.

A rough daily target is a gain of 5–10% of birth weight per day in the first two weeks, though the day-to-day figure bounces around.

No gain for 24 hours is a vet call. Weight loss over 24 hours is an urgent one. A puppy has almost no reserves and can go from slightly behind to critical in half a day.

Keep the record on paper on the box, one line per puppy per day. Colored collars or a dab of nail varnish tell littermates apart. Once they are on solid food you can carry the same habit forward with the puppy weight calculator.

A puppy that cries constantly, or one that is silent and limp, both warrant attention. Contented newborns twitch in their sleep and are quiet.

Week One: Days 1 to 7

The most fragile week of a dog's life.

Puppies are deaf, blind and almost immobile. They find the mother by warmth and smell, and move by paddling on their bellies.

Feeding is roughly every two hours around the clock. The mother handles this if all is well; hand-rearing means you handle it, and the arithmetic is set out in how much milk should a newborn puppy drink.

Puppies cannot urinate or defecate on their own. The mother stimulates them by licking. If she is not doing it, or a puppy is orphaned, you wipe the genital and anal area gently with damp cotton wool after each feed.

The umbilical stump dries and drops off around day three. Redness, swelling or discharge at the navel needs a vet the same day.

Watch for the fading puppy pattern: separating from the pile, going cold, limp muscle tone, weak crying, no weight gain. Any two of those together justify a call.

Handle the puppies briefly each day for weighing and a health check. Gentle daily handling is beneficial; long sessions out of the warm box are not.

Week Two: Eyes and the First Changes

Things begin to happen quickly.

Eyes open between about day 10 and day 14. They open as a slit first and may open one at a time. Vision is poor at the start and the blue-gray color is temporary — the detail is in when do puppies open their eyes.

Never prise an eye open. If a lid is bulging, crusted or oozing before it opens, that is a vet appointment, not a job for a flannel.

Ears begin to open around day 14 to 18, and the first startle to a loud noise is a good sign.

Puppies start pushing up onto their forelegs and crawling more deliberately.

Drop the box temperature by about 5°F (3°C) now the litter is a little more robust.

Deworming usually starts around two weeks and repeats fortnightly on the vet's schedule. Roundworms pass from mother to puppies and are effectively universal, so treat rather than test.

Week Three: Standing, Teeth and Toileting

The week the litter turns from a pile into individuals.

Puppies stand and take wobbly steps, then begin to play with each other.

The first needle-sharp milk teeth erupt, usually the canines and incisors. This is what starts the mother reducing feeds.

They begin to urinate and defecate without stimulation, which is when the box starts needing much more cleaning and a designated toilet area becomes useful.

Thermoregulation begins to work, which is why supplementary heat can start coming down in earnest.

Hearing and eyesight sharpen quickly, and puppies start responding to voices.

This is the start of the socialization window, roughly three to twelve weeks, when new sounds, surfaces and gentle handling have a lasting effect on temperament. Quiet household noise is a feature, not a problem.

Weeks Four to Six: Weaning Begins

The mother's job shrinks and yours grows.

First gruel goes down at around three and a half to four weeks — puppy food soaked and blended with warm water or milk replacer to a porridge consistency, offered in a wide flat dish.

Expect mess. Puppies walk in it, sit in it and wear it before they eat it. That is the process working, and a warm damp cloth afterwards is part of the routine.

Thicken the mixture gradually over two to three weeks, going from soupy to lumpy to softened kibble. The staged plan is in the puppy weaning schedule.

Fresh water in a shallow bowl from four weeks, changed often.

The mother starts standing up to nurse, then leaving the box. Let her. This is normal maternal weaning and it is what teaches puppies to accept a no.

Her food comes down as milk demand falls — feeding her at peak-lactation levels while she is drying off risks mastitis, and the whole picture is in how much should a nursing dog eat.

Weeks Seven and Eight: Ready to Leave

The finish line, and the point people most often rush.

Puppies should be fully weaned onto solid puppy food by seven to eight weeks, eating four small meals a day.

First vaccination usually happens between six and eight weeks, with a second dose a few weeks later, plus a final worming.

Weeks six to eight are when bite inhibition is learned — a puppy bites a littermate too hard, the game stops, and it learns to soften its mouth. That lesson cannot be replicated by people, which is the real reason when can puppies leave their mother is answered as eight weeks and not six.

Introduce car journeys, household noise, different floor surfaces and new people while the socialization window is open.

Each puppy should have a written record of birth weight, weekly weights, worming dates and vaccination dates to hand over.

Toy breeds are often held to ten or twelve weeks, because very small puppies are more prone to low blood sugar and benefit from extra time.

Red Flags: When to call the vet

Newborn problems escalate in hours, not days. Ring rather than wait if you see:

No weight gain for 24 hours, or any weight loss after the first day.

A puppy that feels cool to the touch, is limp, or has stopped nursing.

Constant crying that is not settled by warmth and a feed.

Diarrhea in a newborn, which causes dangerous dehydration very fast, or vomiting.

A swollen, red or discharging navel, or a bulging, crusted or weeping eye before or after opening.

Milk coming down the nose during a feed, which suggests aspiration or a cleft palate.

In the mother: foul-smelling discharge, fever, a hot painful mammary gland, refusing food, or trembling and stiffness, which can signal eclampsia and is a genuine emergency.

None of this is a diagnosis — it is a list of the moments when a phone call is cheaper than a delay.

FAQ

How warm should newborn puppies be kept?

Around 85–90°F (29–32°C) in the box for the first week, stepping down roughly 5°F (3°C) a week to about 73–78°F (23–26°C) by week three, then normal room temperature from about week five. Heat one end only so the litter can move away.

How often do newborn puppies need to feed?

Roughly every two hours in week one, every three hours in week two, then stretching to every four hours by weeks three and four. Feeds stop being round the clock once weaning is under way at about four weeks.

How much weight should a newborn puppy gain?

Steadily, every day, roughly doubling birth weight by seven to ten days. A daily gain of about 5–10% of birth weight is typical in the first two weeks. No gain for 24 hours warrants a vet call.

Why should you not feed a cold puppy?

Below about 93°F (34°C) a puppy's gut stops moving, so milk sits undigested and may be inhaled or cause bloating. Warm the puppy slowly over one to two hours against your skin, then feed once it is warm and rooting.

When do newborn puppies open their eyes and ears?

Eyes open between about day 10 and day 14, often one at a time and as a slit first. Ears open a few days later, around day 14 to 18. Never try to open an eye yourself.

Do newborn puppies need help to go to the toilet?

Yes, for about the first three weeks. The mother stimulates them by licking after feeds. For orphaned puppies, wipe the genital and anal area with damp cotton wool after every feed until they manage alone.

Warmth, Weight, Then Everything Else

Newborn care has a clear order of priorities and it rarely changes. Keep the box warm enough — about 85–90°F (29–32°C) in week one, dropping roughly 5°F (3°C) a week — because a puppy cannot make its own heat until nearly three weeks old, and never feed a puppy that is cold. Weigh every puppy every day and write it down, because a flat or falling weight is the earliest signal you will get that something is wrong. After that it is a predictable sequence: eyes at ten to fourteen days, standing and teeth at three weeks, gruel at four, fully weaned and ready to leave at eight. Keep tracking those weights as they grow with the free puppy weight calculator.