Advise for me please! - Page 1

Marley is getting bored, she wants to ruff house with another dog, she loves to do that. I have her seperated because of her puppies and she misses keizer and Baily. She has started to try to rough house with her puppies and there not enjoying it at all. Ive tried to rough house with her but she is way to rough, and i dont want to start bad habbits with her. I tried to let baily and keizer in with her. she was really excited, but dont want them anywhere near the pups and of course thats what they want to see is the pups. So that didnt work out. My next idea was to let her in with keizer and baily, but then the pups would be left alone.  The puppies are now 31/2 weeks old and are getting big and doing well. They starting eating rice and puppy food yesterday, they didn't eat very much. But i fed them this morning and they did alot better and ate until they were full and went to sleep, so i figured this would be the perfect time to take marley to keizer and baily. There having a blast, they havent been around each other in a month in a half. How long should i let her stay in with them and away from the pups? I was thinking every other feeding should be puppy food and during the puppy food feedings and nap, Marley can have a break with her buddies. Does that sound like a good idea. She's getting kinda skinny looking, and shes an excellent mother and feeds her puppies constantly, thats why she looks skinny she eats plenty about 25 lbs a week of puppy food, i think thats why yesterday the puppies wouldn't eat the food, they were already full.  Is it too soon for me to start separating them? Please tell me what you think.

Is there a reason you don't want the other 2 around the pups? If the mom is alright with it and they wouldn't harm the pups I don't see what the problem would be? Mom will want to wander more when their of that age, and usually she will let you know when it's time for her to go back with her pups, at least my female did. I would probably increase the mother's food or start adding in supplements to her food. She is losing supplements from her body and giving it to her pups, so it would be best to add it to her food.  I will be finally having pups in May and I will let my 11 year old GSD (if it doesn't upset mom, which I don't think it will) go in to see her pups. My old girl absolutely loves puppies even when their not her's. JMO

Kel

www.boeselagerkennel.com

NO, she doesnt want them near the puppies and she will attack them if they attempt to go near them.

Oh Okay. Then I would just let her out when she wants out to play with the other 2, and she should let you know when she's had enough playing and wants to go back to take care of her pups. If you feel it's too long for her to be away from them, or the puppies start to howl for her then put her back in with them. With my female I would let her out when she wanted out and put her back in when she wanted in. She always seemed to know when it was time.

Kel

Alright thankyou, its been about an hour and a half now, and everything is going well thanks.

On getting the pups eating on their own try seperating the mother from the pups for along periode of time. like 5 hours so they are hungry  .Then offer them the food you are intoducing them to,  could be you may need to keep them from the mother for up to 6 hours , let them get real hungry . Offer them water while waiting for the food . I only do this at that young of an age if as you say the mother is getting kinda skinny .It could give the mother some relief from the constant nursing of the youngens .

wuzzup, they are only 3 1/2 weeks old. You would do that at their age? I've never weaned my puppies off of their mother. She knows when it's time to wean them (at least mine do) and I've never had a problem with it.

Kel

NO I would not wean them at that age , She says the mother is getting thin and she is trying to get the pups to eat some on thier own . Well they are not going to eat on thier own if momma is draining herself feeding them .They are not very hungry if they won't eat . It was a sugesstion to get the pups to start to eat on their own . I would never starve a puppy . If I thought the mother was handleing it better I would not have sugested it . Some mothers on thier first litter  or any litter don't do well with mantaining body weight .So yes in that situation I would remove the mother from the pups  for several hours untill they were good and hungry so they could figure out how to eat and that eating on their own is important to them .  I would also sugest she worm the mother and pups with pyrantol pamoate wormer at this age . I never said to keep the pups off the mother forever at that age . I also would suggest feeding the pups a very soupy mixture of food at this age .

just thought I would ask. She could also beef up the mother's intake on food with supplements, etc. What ever works for the female.

Kel

I start supplementing about now, too.   My husband grinds their puppy kibble in the food processor to flour to make gruel.  He does quite a bit at once and stores in a tupperware bowl, then I only have to add warm water to the amount I want. They are still more sucking up food than anything at this age, so I always make sure it's very smooth with no lumps. After about 4 1/2 weeks, we start with totally ground up fine chicken wings/backs, some hamburger with powdered milk sprinkled on and still the gruel only much thicker.