Episode 41 - Freestyling Mother's Pudding

2/17/2026

This episode is about using mother’s pudding for lactating dams:

I was just wondering what brand of cool and serve vanilla pudding mix you are all using for mother’s pudding…The last litter I had, the puppies got diarrhea on day 3 (nightmare) and we never got it fully resolved until they got onto food at 3 weeks... We ruled out EVERYTHING we could think of…the only thing we could come up with was the mother’s pudding…[this dam is about to have another litter and] I want to use it because they do so much better on it with the calories. Help!

I explore:

Allergens that are theoretically possible to be passed through mother’s milk
Homemade mother’s pudding and switching up ingredients in mother’s pudding for different situations
Whether or not you should be concerned about mother’s pudding for your dams

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To read the transcript for this episode, click the link below.

Transcript - Episode 41

I'm Jane Messineo Lindquist. And this is a Puppy Culture potluck podcast. You bring the topics, we bring the conversation.

This week's topic is mother's pudding. And specifically tweaking the ingredients for mother's pudding. And here's the question.

Hey everyone. I was just wondering what brand of cool and serve vanilla pudding mix you all are using for mother's pudding? Is anyone having trouble with the Jell-O Cook and serve. I've had four litters.

The last litter I had the puppies get diarrhea on day three. Nightmare. And we never got it fully resolved until they got on to food at three weeks. Then they never looked back. We ruled out everything we could think of. I am also a vet and have a specialist interest in repro. I asked specialists for more ideas as well and tried many things.

Nothing helped until their diet changed. The only thing we could come up with was the mother's pudding. That being said, I made it the same every time. My other two females did wonderful on it and there was no puppy diarrhea. This female is having her second litter in a few weeks. I'm gonna try to do mother's pudding for her again.

Wondering if they changed something else in the Jell-O Cook and Serve vanilla pudding mix, that could be a problem. I want to use it because they do so much better with it on the calories. Help!

So I did ask a few follow up questions on this, and, I don't think that the original poster saw them. I didn't get an answer, but you know, I don't know what else this dam is eating.

I don't know what her base diet is, so I can't say for sure that we've truly ruled out everything that it could be. I also think it would be unusual for a dam to eat mother's pudding for the entire three weeks that she's nursing, but possibly, you know, with a big litter, it's possible that she was. But let's put that aside and focus just generally on what kind of things potentially could cause an adverse reaction to mother's milk such as this, because this is what it is, is essentially, it's like the puppies are almost allergic to their mother's milk and they're getting diarrhea.

In human infants, the most common allergens that are cited to pass through breast milk are wheat, soy, and cow milk. Now, again, I don't have to tell you that wheat and soy are things that are going to be found in kibble. So if this dog is on kibble, that is a very likely culprit, if that is what the problem is.

But just to cover all the bases, let's talk about alternate recipes for mother's pudding. First of all, I'd be making it from scratch. We have a recipe card on the Puppy Culture website. You can get it there. Go to puppyculture.com and under the tab Useful Information, if you go to the references for breeder section, there is a made from scratch Mother's Pudding Core recipe card.

Also, under that same useful information tab, there's a free video where I demonstrate how to make Mother's pudding from scratch. So definitely avail yourself of those two resources.

Back to the original posters dilemma. I would try making it with potato flour and I would greatly reduce the sugar because remember sugar is in osmotic laxative? In our breeder course, we teach how to use sugar as a tool to help relieve constipated puppies.

Sugar brings water into the large intestine and softens the stool. And I know in this case it's the dam eating the sugar. But in humans, very high sugar diets can pass through breast milk. So in theory at least, it's possible if the dam really had a lot of mother's pudding made with the full amount of sugar it could make her milk higher in sugar content.

And if the puppies were getting extra sugary milk, that could be softening their stools. I mean, the dam would have to be eating a lot of mother's pudding for a long period of time for that to happen. But, you know, I'm just throwing stuff, I'm spitballing, throwing stuff out there. So try the potato flour, which also has better prebiotics than corn or wheat anyway, and then cut the sugar way back and put in just enough to make it palatable for the dam.

I'm also assuming that she's making this with goat milk, because that is the recipe. But if she is making it with cow milk, that would be another potential allergen that she could eliminate by switching that out for goat milk. I just want to add, in case people listening to this are worried now about giving mothers pudding to their dams. I have never seen this happen. This is a totally theoretical stab at this. And honestly, I would imagine there could be another explanation than the mother's pudding. But it's worth it to bring up the subject that you can tweak the ingredients, that it's very easy to make on your own. I mean, essentially it's eggs, corn starch, sugar, and goat milk.

You can freestyle those ingredients and use more or less and change the recipe as you go along. Listen, it started out with the pudding mix because most people just the thought of of making pudding on the stovetop is just it's a lot for people, okay. But really, we give you directions. There's a video there on how to make it on on our website.

It it's worth it really to master this because it's a good idea to have different formulas. You know, you maybe were going to start out with an awful lot of sugar because that's when the dam really needs that hit of energy, and you might be ramping it down as you go along. I definitely have had dams who would only eat mother's pudding and wound up eating a lot of mother's pudding in the beginning and wound up getting loose stools from that.

And in those cases, I folded in canned pumpkin. So that's just one example of the way that I change around the formula depending on the circumstances. In an ideal world, Mother's pudding is not a sustenance diet. It's a shot in the arm. Normally I don't have bitches eating a lot of it for three weeks. But you know, there's always exception to this rule. And you can troubleshoot by tweaking the ingredients.

Another thing I would mention as a raw feeder, I always have ground chicken frames on hand when I'm having a litter. And the reason being for the puppies and for the dam, there will be times when the balance of bone to meat ratio is going to be off, right? So if she is eating a lot of mother's pudding again with the loose stools, with the sugar and not getting enough bone in proportion in her diet.

So throwing in those ground chicken frames, which is essentially just ground to bone, can often balance that again and tighten up her stool. And also obviously an amazing hit of calcium. Now does that pass through to the puppies? I mean, as much as anything else would. Okay, so again, just to clarify, I'm not saying that that is what's going on here or that is why the puppies had diarrhea.

But if it is ingredient in the mother's pudding, it is just as likely that the milk composition was changed not by the mother's pudding per se, as being thrown off of, of proportion. Right, so that she's not getting enough bone in her diet. So adding bone, you know, that it's a, it's a handy tool to have on hand.

Well, that's short and sweet. A little bit about freestyling the mother's pudding. Hope you enjoyed it. If you like this podcast, you'll love our breeders course. From Newborn to New Home available at puppyculture.com. Breeders. Do you want to get your puppy owners started off on the right foot? Check out our breeder bulk discounts on our puppy course, With Open Arms and a Level Head - how to welcome a puppy into your life. Available at puppyculture.com.

Well, that's it for this time. Thanks for listening. Bye bye.