I have quite a bit to cover, I have a male pug Lucky and a female pug Luna she gave birth to 5 pups on 5/7. She has always been a good dog same goes for Lucky, good temperament, very playful, know the rules of the house. So my point is this, when she had the puppies, she instantly killed one, I have no idea why, we had to pry her mouth open to get the lifeless pup away from her. So after this she seemed to not want anything to do with the puppies, we tried to get them close to her so they could feed and she would get up and walk away. We tried to give her treats to lay down so she could feed them and she got upset and snapped at us and took another lunge at another pup and as much as I tried to care for it, it died the next morning. So since this has happened I called our vet and was told to remove the puppies and have now been bottle feeding the remaining 3 pups. They have done very well with the formula, they have not opened their eyes yet at is it only day 9, but I'm sure it will be soon. I have been on Google almost every day to make sure I am doing everything right. I work so I am feeding them at this schedule 6:30, come home for lunch 11:30, after work 5pm, again at 9pm and 1am.....At times I feel lost......
How long do I bottle feed them?
How much should they be eating?
How many times a day do i feed them?
When do I start trying dry food with formula?
At what age can they go to a new home?
When do they start teething?
How do I start to potty train?
Should I find a new home for my Luna, as she has become very temperamental? Or should I get her fixed, I don't want her to kill another litter if she is to get pregnant again, this was her first litter?

Please help?

Sally .

Please keep yoru posts to oen thread as it will get very complicated trying to follow two at once.

Oh dear - everything is going wrong, isn't it?

I'm afraid that if you want to keep the remaining three puppies, you are GOING to have to take time off work - these puppies requires 24/7 attention for the next couple of weeks.   They need feeding, and stimulating to make bladder and bowels work every 2 hours for the next couple of weeks.  They need to be kept warm - but not too hot - and of course, mum needs attention to.   I take it that you already do have whelpi or something similar plus bottles to feed them?   What weights are they?   You must weigh them daily.   

If you do not have the support of a mentor, and have no experience of rearing puppies, then maybe you should look to finding a foster mother for these puppies.

Sasanchez was this an accidental mating? It is so important to know the answer to all of these questions prior to breeding, for the sake of your bitch, your pups and the new puppy owners, you need to be someone they can come to to ask questions about toilet training etc, a bitch is in whelp for 9 weeks if this were an accidental mating, you've had all of that time to learn these basics, your dealing with lives here, they deserve more...........

However, congratulations on hand rearing these pups for 9 days, it will have been hard, tiresome work, so well done! :-)

Order Book Of The Bitch to get you started,

The formula times and amounts via weight should be on the formula container, it's a while since I hand reared, but I'm pretty sure that 4 hourly feeds began at 2 weeks not 9 days, are they still putting on weight and thriving?

You can begin weaning puppies from approx 2.5 weeks (hand reared pups only) they will still need formula, but you can begin to wean in-between feeds,  if they will take a puppy porridge or mushy scrambled egg made with goats milk, or dry complete puppy food, soaked in warm water mashed up very mushy. They may take minced meat, frozen to kill bacteria and germs and then defrosted and given in tiny pieces from your finger. They may well begin to lap up the formula by 3 weeks so you can put it in bowls for them, but you'll need to play it by ear as to how soon the pups will take to food, they may not be ready or they may gulp it down.

I guess you have good reason not to be there full time for your pups at 9 days old, but it is not ideal, those of us who breed responsibly would never leave pups at this age, not only do they need constant temperature checks, feeding, but toilet stimulations. Is the dam any better with them, does she clean them, do you think she will be able to be a role model to them from 5 weeks onwards as they learn so much from their mothers re: their socialising, manners etc?

If you are at work it will be very hard work, once the pups begin playing and pooing and weeing all the time, can you get someone to help you look after them?

Pups generally do not leave until 8 weeks of age, I think some Pug breeders may even go to 12 weeks.

Toilet training needs a new post as too many questions on this one alone,

As for re-homing your bitch and spaying her, yes, I would definitely spay her, re-homing, not sure why..... how she deals with her litter and her hormones at present, does not reflect on her, if she goes back to how she was before she should not be re-homed due to not being a good mum. :-)

You chose a very difficult breed as a novice breeder, c-sections and pup rejection is not unusual your girl really needed you to be prepared for this. I really hope that all breed related health tests have been done for the sake of the pups and potential new owners.

As well as CD who will help as much as we can, it would be very good for you to join a website of your breed.

As said previous well done on rearing them so far, you've done well........ lot of hard work ahead though.........

Just to touch on what Lokis mum has said with regards to your bitch needing care too, has she been vet checked? You say that she is temperamental now too, how do you mean? Do you know what to look out for re: eclampsia, pyo etc, were all sacs expelled? Just worried that if not sure what to look out for if you may be missing signs of something wrong. If at all worried about her please just take her to the vet for a check over.

I guess you are based in the US from the way your posts are written?
Have you made contact with the Pug club of America? They may know of a breeder nearby to you who could possibly give you a hand? It maybe worth asking.
http://www.pugs.org/

Hope everything is going OK, for a little breed specific info- feeding intervals for 9 day pups if they are thriving well  (putting on weight each day) would be 3 hourly for me, if they are very small or only gaining some days then still the newborn 2 hourly feed.  Amounts depends on pups weight - for an 8oz pug I would be aiming at about 6ml per feed on the 2 hourly regime.  I have only once had pugs (including hand reared ones) willing to start weaning as early as 3 weeks, 4 to 5 weeks is more usual.   8 weeks old is the absolute earliest you can consider letting them go to new homes.

HAve you  had your girl check out at the vets?  The unsettled/agression could indicate eclampsia.

H
First of all sorry to hear you have lost pups.I have the same breed and they are not always the best of mums.
I had a situation not unlike yours with my last litter where mum would not look at pups or clean them for the first twelve days
she was a first time mum. I had taken five weeks holiday and my hubby took two weeks after that so pups got the best start.
Basically you need to be there 24/7 when rearing a litter for both pups and mum-poor girl probably just does not know whats hit her. Have you had her vet checked?
At nine days you need to toilet them every two hours and I would have been constantly putting them to mum with very close supervision if you don't her milk will dry up and she will never accept them.
Our girl eventually became a fantastic mum but it took a lot of perserverance and many sleepless nights.
I am not sure if you planned this litter or not but your poor girl did not ask for this so why should you even think about re-homing
her? You should have her done to avoid this happening again and love her as your pet.
As they get older you still need to be there constantly to socialise them and teach them,however mum might take to them if you keep trying and giving mum lots of praise and fuss over her.
I do wish you the best of luck but can't help thinking you should have done some homework before breeding.
BOOK OF THE BITCH A MUST!!!!

> I would have been constantly putting them to mum with very close supervision if you don't her milk will dry up and she will never accept them.

I would be a little dubious about recomending this course, Kane.  The bitch appears to have been apart from the litter for several days, so the milk may have already dried up. She killed one of the pups at least whilst under supervision.  For a first time breeder who is not spending 24/7 with the pups  I think the best we can hope is to help both pups and Mum come through this as well as possible, making a good Mum out of hte bitch may be a step too far.