Hi there, just a bit of  advice please as its our first litter. Our bitch had 5 pups 7 weeks ago. We lost 2 pups within the first 2 weeks, but the remaining ones are thriving well and are fully weaned. The problem is that whenever they see their mum they still want to feed. We have tried to keep it to a minimum of morning and night, but today when I tried to separate them the bitch growled at me ( never known it before, she's so placid). Is this a conseqeunce of loosing the 2 pups or have we just been naive to let them continue feeding? We have a put an old swimming costume on the bitch in the day time to try and avoid it as much as possible, its just stopping the  2 short am and pm feeds thats the real prob. Thanx

Why do you want to stop it? Let the bitch do what she wants -she will make it clear. As long as she isn't forced to stay with the pups and can leave them whenever she wants, if she wants to feed them then that is fine. Sooner or later she will not allow it and will growl at the pups instead. Each time I sell a pup the last thing they do is usually have a quick last drink, and the pup I keep sometimes get an odd drink up until 10 weeks, if the mum lets it and still has milk. The milk will still dry up, the bitch knows what she's doing.

Its just from everything I've read and been told that they should be weaned off their mums by the time they leave at 8 weeks. If it's normal then great, there's no problem. Some people say they separate their pups from their mums all day, but surely this is cruel and how can they learn from their mums if they aren't with them all day? Thanks

Again I let the mum choose. My bitches tend to want to be away from their pups from as early as 4 weeks, and that is common in my breed -obviously this can vary a lot from breed to breed and bitch to bitch. :). But I always let them go to them when they want. I do however find they just go in for several short visits then ask to be let back out again.

I agree with Marianne, let the bitch dictate how much time she wants to spend with them, they are feeding from her on instinct not because they need it, once they leave they wont cry for their mums milk they will be just fine. My girls by this stage have usually had enough!!!  Though some will enjoy a little feed and some playtime with their babies.

All sounds normal and i wouldn't worry :)

all 10 of our pups were still trying to feed even till the day that they left. it was almost like a comfort suck as it was sort of 30 secs and then the bitch would have enough and then they would leave her again. It was mainly in the morning when she had left them all night this was her choice as she was able to come and go as she pleased.... This system worked well for us,none of the new owners mentioned any problems with this. Even the pup I kept basically stopped feeding a couple of days after all the others had gone. They kind of just stop! Sounds like you have been doing a great job and let mum decide what is right and wrong, as long as she has an area that she can retreat to by herself away from the pups at any time then I wouldn't worry about it. Good luck

Our litter of 7 are just over 8 weeks and still have a feed from mum, she lets them first thing every morning, but when she's had enough soon lets them know, 2 left at the weekend, another 2 this weekend, another 2 next weekend and the last one the week after, I never stop them feeding from mum as long as she's happy with it.

Our two year old has just tried to suckle from a mum with 10 day old pups, not sure which of the two lookeed most shocked :-)  I presume she smelt the milk and almost had an automatic response to it :-)

We let ours self wean and they are often still giving comfort sucks as the pups leave for their new homes, you should congratulate yourself that a good diet has kept your 'mum' in milk

Our pups all left with a final feed from their mother, she quickly told them when she had had enough, the one we have kept - now 12 weeks - still tries and there are a lot of slurping noises so I imagine there isn't an awful lot of milk and it is more of a comfort thing.

I am wondering when the mum will stop but she doesn't seem to mind and wanders off when she's had enough

The mum of my pups told me when she'd had enough by growling at her pups. One of them still used to try but was told off by mum and he got the message. I have a shihtzu pup who obviuosly was taken from mum to soon as she sucks my boy pups winkle and the bitches lulus..sorry could'nt bring m self to say the biological names..lol... I think its best for mum to decide. She will scold them when its time :) Hope this is helpful !!

As long as the bitch is ok with it I wouldn't worry. One of my friends always has them weaned and away from the bitch by 7 or 8 weeks, but I left it up to Ellie when I had a litter. She started trying to escape from them but being unable to as they were so big and strong when they grabbed hold, so I put a babygro on her so they couldn't latch on, and once they'd kicked the suckling habit they had so much fun playing with her. Ellie particularly loved that playing bit, as my 2 boys have never been very playful, so it was the first time she'd had proper playmates, most of the dogs at club being bigger than her.

Thank you everyone, its really reassuring to hear from you guys....much appreciated