An adult female feeding young Labrador Retriever puppies indoors in a kitchen with natural light, daytime setting, white cabinets and tiled floor. 3:06
The Freer Family Vlogs channel icon The Freer Family VlogsOriginal creator 5.3M views Save

First real meal for ten Labrador puppies

Ten plates go down on a tiled floor, one for each Labrador puppy in the litter. more

A woman sets the puppies down one at a time, each in front of a plate. "This one's Monty," she says, and moves on to the next. The litter is a mix of black coats and pale ones.

A woman holds a puppy while other puppies eat from plates on a tiled floor near a washing machine. A headline runs in white letters across the lower third.Save
The pups are set down one at a time, one to a plate.

The pups are four weeks old and still nursing. With a litter this big, the Freer family starts solid food early to help their mother out. The puppies will keep drinking her milk for a while yet.

It does not take long. Heads drop, and the food starts to disappear. For babies at their first real meal, their manners are better than a lot of kids'. They each start at their own plate and get on with the job while a grown-up stands by.

A woman feeds puppies from plates on a kitchen floor while another person stands nearby. A headline runs in white letters across the lower third.Save
The pups dig in while the family keeps watch.

That order lasts about as long as the food. As the plates run low, a few pups wander over to a neighbor's plate, and a few end up on the bare floor. It's a beautiful mess.

An adult female feeding young Labrador Retriever puppies indoors in a kitchen with natural light, daytime setting, white cabinets and tiled floor. The headline runs in white letters across the lower third.Save
Ten plates go down on a tiled floor, one for each Labrador puppy in the litter.

Later, someone kneels on the tile among them. The puppies keep right on eating.

A person kneels beside several puppies eating from plates on a tiled floor near a washing machine. A headline runs in white letters across the lower third.Save
Someone kneels among the pups, and they keep right on eating.

Only one of the ten is staying. The family kept a pup the daughter named Poppy, and the rest will go to new homes. The hard part, they admit, is that you never want to give them away. You want to keep them all.

#puppies