i wrote on here a week or so ago about my bitch been aggressive towards her pups and also acting strange with members of our family,well shes been fully checked over by the vet, theres nothing wrong, shes not sore, shes not getting disturbed by anyone or other animals, she just doesnt like her pups at all? when she goes into the room with them shes growling at them and im litterly having to watch her like a hawk as she just goes for them for no reason, there now 4 weeks and 1 day old, my question now is, will they be ok without her milk? is there anything i need to be giving them extra, she wont go in to feed them and im scared to death she will kill one, they are on puppy complete soaked and seem happy to eat it, i just want to know if they will be ok if she doesnt feed them anymore as im feeling cruel on her making her go in if shes that stressed by them and dont want any harm to come to pups but also dont want them missing out on milk, im realy stuck on this one so any advice would be great, thanks for reading xx

Wean them now!
Dont feed the bitch or have any food in the room anywhere near the litter whilst she is around.
Pups will be just fine on solids now, dont risk it, act now.

At 4 weeks of age the pups nails and teeth (like razors) are very sharp often making feeding painful for a bitch, are you cutting the pups nails? If not you should be, they grow very quickly. There is a world of difference between a bitch growling and chastising and teaching puppy manners and one being aggressive, unfortunately we are not there to tell the difference.

Due to this fact it is difficult to advise so I guess we will have to take your word for it that you are feeling insecure about the behaviour.

The pups are fine not to feed from the dam anymore if need be though it is beneficial for them to top up from her and have close contact for socialising and learning dog behaviour.

If you are really scared her behaviour is not normal then pop out get some pasturised goats milk mix a cup full with an egg yolk and warm (luke warm) place in a bowl for the pups to lap up morning and evening along with their solid food routine.

This will suffice perfectly well, or you can pop out and get some whelpi to have alongside their food. They will survive even without milk at this age as long as you are soaking the food and offering water, but obviously much better to offer a top up milk substitute too. :-)

Pop a t-shirt on your girl when she is visiting the pups so that they do not try to feed from her if it is causing her to behave 'aggressively' as already said we are not there to witness the behaviour, so we shall have to go by what you say.

Best of luck! :-)

Did the Vet check her Calcium levels for Eclampsia which can occur at peak lactation.

Also as the others said sharp claws if they haven't been cut at least weekly since birth can make for a lot of pain when they paw at her.

Puppies do need the benefit of adult canine socialisation, is the mother the only dog?  Are the pups now mixing with other canines in the family. If Mum is being truly aggressive (as opposed to disciplining) then her input may actually be negative, but no reason why a puppy loving Aunt or Uncle cannot substitute for the role models they should have.

hi, thank you for your replies, yes the vet did check calcium levels and also did a scan to check there was nothing left behind, if im honest shes not been a good mum all the way through and we had to rush one pup to vets at about 2 weeks old as she had grabbed him and started shaking him, which cant be her showing them dicaplin as the pups werent even walking or anything then, shes also been realy funny with family members as in growling when shes come into the family room at my daughter, im at a totall loss as we were keeping a pup from the litter to bring on for agility as thats what we do with mum, if i had had any idea she would be like this i would have never considered letting her have a litter as its realy quite scary, she wont let pups go near the water bowl and is showing her teeth at them when they just go near her, all nails have been clipped every few days from birth to get puppies used to been handled and have it done.
For some reason our girl just seemed to change over night with everyone, i thought at first she was just been protective of the pups maybe but seems like they may be the problem in her head, i do have another dog who so far hasnt been allowed near the pups as our girl has given warnings to her so we have kept her away, i do know she would be good with the pups as she even decided to try to rear our cat much to the cats dislike...lol.
just so confused on what to do about mum dog, is she likely to be like this forever? she wont tollirate our other dog and both are having to go outside seperate and shes scared my daughter but i keep trying to understand that maybe motherhood just wasnt her thing and that she will go back to normal, but now dont know what to do about keeping a pup.

just so confused on what to do about mum dog, is she likely to be like this forever?

Sad situation but I have seen it once -not with my own dogs I hasten to add, but a neighbour who came running asking for help as her bitch had started attacking the pups and meant to kill -the pups were 3 weeks old. I ended up taking a pup home with me. There was nothing wrong with the bitch. I'd say your best option is to spay your bitch, you don't want to breed from her again and if hormones are playing a part at all, best to spay her for that reason too.

Picking up a pup and shaking it is never normal, bitches don't discipline in this way, it's all by sound and body language.

The one thing I'd wonder about is whether she has never been able to feel secure enough -has she had other dogs, cats and more than one person around her (not as in close to her, but within sight? as you said she'd warned the other dog) since birth? I don't even let my own kids anywhere near pups until a couple of weeks old. Some bitches don't mind, others do.

I agree with the others - 4 weeks is plenty old enough to fully wean particularly in this case. Don't let your girl go anywhere near the puppies if she's that unhappy with them.

I would remove the pups from their dam and let your other bitch care for them secure in the knowledge she isn't going to be attacked for going near them either at the time or later.

Reproductive hormones in humans can have adverse effects, some women can cope and others simply can't, I saw some really weird behaviour during my time as a midwife, but with most humans we don't know the person before they were pregnant so it is hard to judge what is normal for that person.

At least with dogs we breed from we know the dams normal behaviour and surely wouldn't opt to have pups from a dog who has an iffy temperament.

Hopefully by removing the dam from the picture the pups won't have picked up on her agression and will learn good manners from their foster Mum.

yes we plan to get her spayed as soon as we can, like i say if i had any idea she would be like this i would have never ever considered breeding her, shes a very good tempered dog normally and has done agility with me and my eldest daughter and loves working with the kids, my youngest does some fun agility with her but only in practise, shes always been other dog friendly as you just couldnt take her training if she was bad towards other dogs, shes always been healthy and never had any problems which is what makes all this more heart breaking as it feels like ive made her be this way by wanting a litter if that makes sense. She whelped the pups in a room off upstairs which isnt used by anyone, my daughters have been kept well away so have my other dog as she was funny about me been near the pups when they were younger so i even invested in some baby monitors so i could listen 24/7 without making her feel thretened of me been right there.
we are going to stop her going to them today and see how we go, maybe some time out for her and motherhood may help with her stress towards them im not sure but just hoping that she will return to normal.
thanks for the advice and fingerscrossed we get our loving girl back x

hi kirsty dont beat your self up you wasnt to no ,none of us know how our girls will be when its their 1st litter...last year we had a litter (1st and last) with our girl ,you couldnt of asked for a A1 temprement she went on to have 3 large pups ( this breed tend to have anything up to 12 pups! well after haveing her babies she stopped eating!! even when the pups got to 4 weeks old i was haveing to try and put food in her mouth she became very weak so we made the decision to take them away from her and she changed she went back to her normal self and ate everything in sight BUT the min she saw the pups that was it she stoped eating again, so i had 1 of my other girls with the pups to play with them and show them right and wrong she even cleaned up after them ,as soon as she could be spayed she was ,and is still a wonderful girl, so try not to worry she very well should go back to herself once pups are out the way from her ....good luck and wish your girl well x