‘Referring to my note in the previous Christmas Number on this subject, several questions have come to hand. I think I can best answer them by simply repeating some observations on this topic that I wrote for “Notes for Novices” five or six years ago, the substance being as follows:

For some reason which the present writer has never been able to understand, the rearing of puppies on cows’ milk does not always prove a success; whereas cows’ milk diluted with water always seems successful. Maybe this is merely a coincidence, or possibly the effect of the excess of sugar in cows’ milk may have something to do with it... To imitate Nature is everything in such matters, and where puppies for any cause have been deprived of their dam and have to be reared by hand, the thing that is then of greatest importance is to provide them with the best and nearest possible substitute for the mother’s milk they would have had but for the circumstances that have ariven [sic] to deprive them of it. And inasmuch as cows’ milk is the most easy to obtain, it will probably be, by first diluting that in order to thin out its excess sugar, and then by “fortifying” it with additional cream, that a near approach can be made to the bitch’s milk.

The normal percentage of sugar in cows’ milk is more than in bitches’ milk – that is to say, bitches’ milk contains approximately 3.5 per cent. sugar, whilst cows’ milk contains 4.5 to 5.0 per cent. And, on the other hand, bitches’ milk is richer in cream than cows’ milk – hence the advice to add cream to the latter.’