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Originally Posted by bjh  I always let mine dry up naturally and I have never had a female get engorged teats or an infection during the weaning process. I would not take her completely away from the pups but she needs to be able to go to them when she wants to. I use a 8" board to separate mom from pups so she can go to them when she wants to but they can't get to her. Her snapping at them is part of the weaning process. The pups will need mom around to teach them social skills. How big is mom and her pups? Bigger pups are easier to wean early than the tiny ones are. |
Mama is about 5 3/4 pounds (she's been eating good). the pups seem big to me (birth weights: 5.5 ounces, 5 ounces, 4.5 ounces, now boy one: 2 lbs, boy two: 1.7 lbs, and girl: 1.5 lbs respectively). Up until lately they had all been nursing like crazy whenever they could. I think they just wore her out. We've even tried just taking one to her, she'll tolerate the girl (for all of a minute), but they boys she will tolerate nursing even less.
She give me a ten minute warning before she had the first (three days before her due date). She whimpered, clawed at my legs, I felt her stomach (hard as a rock), got the whelping box out, made her comfy, made a tent with a blanket, rubbed her head and decided just to take a "peek" (10 minutes after the first & only whimper) and the first one was 3/4 of the way out. 25 minutes later came #2, and about an hour later came #3, all on her own, not even a whimper. I was soooo thankful I took her to work with me everyday the last 3 weeks of her pregnancy...as she had them shortly after we got home from work, she could have easily had them at home by herself if I had left her. The first one's sack was fairly thick and we definitely had to break that...so I imagine he'd had a problem had she had been alone.
Kendra