Please help me out
 

My yorkie female just gave birth to 5 new babies. 4 boys and a little girl.
3 of the 5 pups she will feed but the runts aren't doing that great with her. I am bottle feeding the runts every 2 hours like the doc says but yesterday she did something really weird and wanted to know what you all thought about it.


She buried her runts. I have the pups and momma in a playpen. it has a blanket in it. But she buried her pups under the blanket and then sat on them. Why would she do this? I am trying to keep an eye on them, but every time I see her with them she pushes them away or tries to bury them again....

so confused....

I would post this in the Breeder section or get an admin to move this thread. Experienced breeders would be better equipped to answer this question and they have a better chance of seeing it in the Breeder section.

For now, this is my bump to get someone to hopefully see this who has an answer!

Praying for the pups.

Yes, the Breeders Section would be more apt to help you. The reason she did it is probably because she knew something was wrong with them. They sense these things.

I know this may sounds really weird but I think it could be that she senses they are not strong enough to survive and her instinct is to get rid of them so they don't try to take food she can give to the stronger ones.

I'll bump this for you, but you need to put this in the breeder section. I'll just guess that she knows they are not strong enough.

Has the vet checked the puppies out? I wonder if there is something wrong with the two small ones. Have you checked their palates for clefts? Are they eliminating well? Do they take the bottle well? How much do your puppies weigh so we can get an idea of what you are talking about with the difference in sizes. Be sure to weigh them all each day.

Take the blanket out of the box. You may also have to separate the mom from the puppies except every 2 hours to put them together for feeding and any time you can be there to watch them. That way she won't kill the pups. It is not uncommon for a mother dog to try to kill puppies, especially the smallest, or sickly ones. It is part of nature -- survival of the fitest. But -- you can intervene and SAVE the puppies by being vigilant and providing extra nurishment. The pups will also need heat. A puppy heating pad placed under one end of the whelping box works well. I used Rubbermade under bed boxes for the puppies and the heating pad managed to heat through the plastic just enough. You only want half of the whelping box heated. Thta way the pups can move to a cooler area if necessary. Heat lamps also work well. I used them at first but decided I liked the heating pads much better (I kept burning myself on the lamp :rolleyes: )

If you or a family member is handy with wood, you might want to hurry and build a proper whelping box with a puppy rail to help protect them from being smothered: How to Build a Whelping Box for Your Dog