My bitch has been a fantastic mum and the pups are now 5 weeks old.  They have been weaned onto Natural Instinct puppy (raw) and are doing very well.  They have 5 small meals a day and up until today mum has still been feeding them (albeit standing up for the last few days).  However, they now have a nice set of teeth and are a little overenthusistic.  She has yelped and moved away a couple of times and growled at them.  They were still keen so I put down a bowl of nutrolac (which I had been giving her) and they did (after initial reluctance) drink this.  She still seems ok offering the milk to start with but once they all pile in doesn't like it.  In every other way she's being great and still cleaning up after them.  Should I let her continue telling them off if they are feeding and being to rough with her or substitute her milk with the nutrolac.

She is teaching them what she will allow so they will go more gently.  As long as she can get away when she wants there should be no issue, even if she has to tell a pup off.

Thanks Brainless.  I did think that, but was concerned it may put her off them altogether and also whether her milk was still important or the milk supplement would be enough now.

This is natural weaning. :-) My bitch was just the same with her pups at the same age - a week later when they'd grown a bit more and didn't drag at her undercarriage so much she was happy to allow them to suckle a bit more again, and started enjoying their company again to play with. In effect she's teaching the 'bite inhibition' - if they're too rough and hard the reward (food) is taken away; an invaluable lesson for growing pups. :-) As long as she can come and go freely rom them all will be well.

> she was happy to allow them to suckle a bit more again, and started enjoying their company again to play with.

I remember thinking my first girl was being very mean to the pups making them go 'cold turkey' with the milk bar, only to realise they went back to nice Mum mode a week later.

Sadly this is the stage many people separate Mum from pups thinking she has had enough of them, when in fact from 6 weeks the bitch will teach the pups a lot about how to behave as a canine.

The bitches definitely know best. The owners who take the pups away at this stage are making a huge mistake.

Thanks - that's reassuring.  She's still offering if there's only one or two and will walk away if they get too much.