I am no expert, but I'll tell you what I recently learned! First off, Vicki, you had me dying laughing when I read the word "ninnys"
Is this a southern thing, as I have never heard that before?? Cracked me up though!
Anyway, my dam, Gellica, had to stop nursing at 2 weeks due to the fact that we almost lost her to Eclampsia. We were told by a couple vets to keep her away from the puppies completely. Of course, this proved to be extremely difficult, if not impossible. So, I tried to fashion a little band out of an ace bandage. I figured that way she could still lay with the babies, but they couldn't nurse. The mom also stimultes the babies for the first three weeks so they can potty - another reason why we needed mommy to be there! So, in our case we had no choice but to bottle feed until they were 5-6 weeks old (and by this time, mommy's milk was dried up.)