Bless you for taking her in, you are her guardian angel, she is very lucky to have found you.
It is normal for them not to leave the pups for the first couple weeks. After the pups are a little older and start moving around more they will start to leave the puppies for a period of time. As the pups get older the mother will spend more time away from them.
You might want to get a small kitchen scale to weigh the pups. They should be gaining weight just about every day. Make sure each pup is nursing and getting their fill. This is why a scale is handy to keep track of their progress.
Make sure you are feeding the mom a good quality puppy food, she will need the extra protein. You can also give her some calcium as well since she has 5 pups to care for. I'm glad you are hand feeding her as she really needs to be eating for her body to keep up with the pups. I would say in about a week or two she will leave the pups to eat on her own.
At 2 weeks old the pups start to open their eyes. They still aren't moving around much at this point (they crawl all over the place but not walkingin yet). Around 3 or 4 weeks old you can start the puppies on some puppy mush (puppy food the is watered down and smashed up). They still need to nurse often but this introduces them to the food. Don't force it on them though, when they are ready they will want it, some earlier than others. At this time they are starting to walk around and become active, I love this stage.
Once they start eating the puppy mush on a regular basis you can gradually increase the hardness of the food. Usually around 6 to 7 weeks old they are starting on the hard kibble, they are pretty active by now. By 10 weeks old they should be weaned off of nursing and eating hard kibble. This is just a general time line. Some pups nurse longer and others are weaned much earlier. It also depends on the mother and when she decides she wants to wean them.
One of my girls weans her pups completely by 6 weeks old while another one would never wean her pups if I didn't step in.
Also at 8 weeks old they should be getting their first shots. Second shots at 12 weeks old and this is usually when most pups are ready to go to a new home.
It sounds like you are on the right track and Molly and the pups are in good hands. Enjoy the pups, they grow up so fast. |