Have momma dog w/10 puppies trying to ween the pups at 5 weeks.?

Question

I just want to know if there is anything I can do to help her with the discomfort. The puppies are still nursing 2-3 times a day. I call the puppies "my little parahnas". HELP! obviously she is absolutely full of milk (and herself, but that's another matter).

I guess I forgot to mention that a week ago mom had a case of mastitis. 4 days of shots and is currently on amoxicillian.sorry.

Answer 1

Why would you force the puppies to wean so early?

I would let them get at least another 3 full weeks of breast milk in before I thought of weaning them completely.

But if you want to help, you can always buy wet puppy food and mix it up into a thin gruel with warm water. Once the pups have got a taste of it, they should be willing to eat from the dish themselves.

Answer 2

What i have done in the past to encourage the puppies to nurse less and eat more is to make the puppy gruel. Offer it to them every two to three hours. odds are they will still comfort nurse but it will start to decrease. When i was breading pitbulls i almost every time had 10 pups and i would take four or five of the metal pie pans and mix their gruel in those and give them to them.

Be prepared it is lots more work for you but worth the fun of watching them play in their food. Just a reminder dont give them cows milk in their gruel unless you want them to have really bad diareah. Normally you start with infant cereal and puppy formula at a fairly thin consistency then make it a little thicker as you go. till your taking puppy food and mushing it up with the formula, then just puppy food.

For very clear concise directions you can either email me or i would suggest you buy the book "Breeding a Litter" especially if this is not to be your last litter.

Answer 3

if the mom has an infection in her glands she should not be feed the puppies at all. because she could give the infection to the puppies. now she still can take care of the puppies just not feed them. yes you can start feeding a soften puppy food but also you can give a bottle of goats milk to the puppies once or twice a day. what i did when my cardigan welsh corgi had the infection i used a tee shirt and a pair of childs shorts and cut a hole in them for the tail. to make sure that the puppies do not nurse on her. Please talk to you vet for any more infromation. you can breed her again if you want to but not to soon. if you do not want to breed her then get her spayed

Answer 4

It's too early to wean the pups, give them a couple more weeks. The mom will tell the pups when she has had enough, and they need to move on. Provide fresh water for the mom to get to at all times.

Answer 5

For pete's sake start the pups on soaked puppy food! the quickest way to dry mom up is limit her food for a day of two.

Answer 6

If it causes her a lot of discomfort, there could be an infection. You might want to get her to a vet, but in the mean time, if you just nurse the puppies with formula, then they won't nurse from the mother so much.

Answer 7

Puppies shouldn't leave Mom for 8 weeks If Mom is still full of milk obviously she can still nurse Don't force this please

Answer 8

5 weeks is ok.they should be fully ween by 6 weeks but can't be taken from mom until they are 8 weeks old not a day before

Answer 9

5 weeks is about the right time for the pups to start soft foods and for Mom to wean them off milk. I would start getting them to try something like Canidae(all stages) kibble litely soaked in goat milk for regular food starters.

Answer 10

Don't breed her anymore.

How could you have bred her when you know nothing.

5 weeks they should be eating semi solid and taking water all on their own. By six weeks they should not have to nurse at all. I usually start weining properly and mom will let them "fill up" on mommy milk for the next couple of weeks.