Dam wanting out
 

:aimeeyorkHi I am new to Yorkie Talk and a new Yrokie Mommy. The puppies are 3 weeks old today and doing great. Mom wants out all the time already? When i put her in with her babies she cleans and feeds them and then wants out right away. Is this normal??? Any Suggestions???:animal-pa

I think it is normal for them being 3 weeks.

Remember her milk only lets down every 2 hours and they're beyond the chilling stage. So, if she wants out, then let her, I think she and the pups will notify you as to when she needs to be back in there with them. The balancing act is not to let her out for great lengths of time. She'll get use to wanting out and want nothing to do with the pups.

Yes, this behavior is perfectly normal. When I have a litter of pups I spend a lot of time letting the mom in and out. The moms like to spend a lot of time in the living room once the puppies start getting a bit older. The older the pups get the more time the mom will want to spend away from them. I always setup my x-pens so mom can escape the pups when she wants too. I have a board that I put across one end of the x-pen and it will contain the pups usually until they are at least 8 weeks old or older, depending on their size. I have attached a picture of my setup. At night I leave the mom with the pups but she is still able to able to escape them. The mom has bedding, food, water and pee pads on her side of the x-pen also. It is a lot of work trying to keep everyone happy. :)

Thanks so much for the info I really appreciate it!

Love the board idea! Thanks!

Those pups are to adorable!

Barbara, I used to have mine fixed that way but I found my mamas (especially a couple) wouldd get away from the babies where they couldn't get the teat or their little legs couldn't run her down and I had to be very careful of low sugar problems in the babies. I have got so now that I put them allin the x-pen. The babies can't get out of the whelping pan until they are about three weeks or so old. When they do that, I transfer them to a smaller area where she can't get away from them and I do the taking in and out every two hours thing. That way I make sure that when she IS in with them that they can catch her and eat. BTW, I love the picture of the babies looking out!!!!!!

Dee, luckily I have never had an unattentive momma. Mine are the opposite. If mine are in the living room and they hear a peep from the pups they will run to check on them. At night the mom is in the x-pen but she does have her own space.

The reason I would never leave a momma confined with the pups is because we had a freak accident one time. I had a 8 lb momma in an x-pen with her pups and we had gone out to eat and when we came home one of the pups was in distress, gasping for air. This was a 5 week old pup. We took her to the emergency room and they did x-rays and it showed the puppy's diaphragm was ruptured. We figure the puppy was probably laying on its back sleeping when the momma, in her excitement of us coming home and wanting out, starting jumping up and down and must have landed in the middle of the puppy's belly and ruptured her diaphragm. So for that reason I always have it where the mom has a space of her own at one end of the x-pen so if she does want out and is jumping up and down the pups are not under her feet. Mine stay in the whelping box until they are about 3 1/2 to 4 weeks old. As soon as they start walking I remove the whelping box. Here is one of my happy mommas and her babies in a bottomless whelping box. I love the bottomless boxes because I can just set the box on top of the bedding and not worry about pups getting lost in the bedding. I will usually just put a small baby blanket in the box with them. The whelping box is setup in an x-pen.

ooops, that was the wrong picture. Here is the happy momma in her whelping box.

OMG What a cute pic! Wish I could come over and play....:)

Welcome to YT..