I've just put some food down for my bitch and she took a mouthful back into her whelping box with the pups (3 weeks old today).  I've just started introducing pups to food and as it was smelly Butchers Tripe they went clamouring.  Well, she told them off big time and pushed one against the side of the whelping box but she managed to catch one in the mouth (with her teeth I guess) and he's bleeding.  Its from his mouth area and I can't see any significant damage and you know how blood goes a long way especially when on 850g of small white puppy.  He seems OK and is happy to suckle but he did squeal, much more than when the vet did his tail!!

She licked him straight away and cleared up the bit of blood that was on the vetbed and then let him suckle.

She definitely had a stroppy 20 seconds and I didn't like it!

I am now worried about going to bed incase she does it again.  I have offered her the food that I instantly took away, in the kitchen but she won't get out of the box now and seems to "know" that she has done wrong.

Its now gone midnight and I will be up at 6ish so I am just giving her water overnight as she has been well fed all day.  I can't risk her doing the same again, I would be devastated if anything happened to them.

Any suggestions anyone? 

When my last bitch had pups I realised how over-domesticated they have become. :( She would (as in the wild) regurgitate her meal for them, but would then guard it from them, growling if they approached. This was when the pups were about 3 weeks old.

When she told me how lax I was in providing their food I made sure that she (the bitch) had time to eat her meal in peace and I would feed the pups their own meal while she was away.

Problem solved.
:)

Thanks Jeangenie.  I guess it's just a case of separate food from now on.  Although I did feed her away from them but she just took a mouthful of food and jumped back into the box to spit it out.  Perhaps she hasn't quite got the hang of regurgitation!

You feel so protective of those little mites and I can't bear the thought of one being hurt.

How about locking the bitch out of the whelping box till they have had their fill. What I would do was put my bitch in the big pen and pull all puppies out and feed them and I would put them back in 1 by 1 and she would clean them all off (since they were covered in wet food) and they would suckle. My bitch was good never had a problem with the puppies but she did have the problem of eating all their food thats why I seperated them while the pups ate.

Do hope your little one is ok :)

They are all currently asleep in a pile.  There is no sign of more blood so I guess they are OK.  She has just sheepishly come out of the whelping box and sat on my feet :-(

Aaaawwww poor little love,hope he's not too badly hurt.Bitches tend to get like this,although i,ve never known one to actually injure a pup before,when they have their meals.They know the pups are begining to take an interest in their food and for some reason feel threatened.Its so hard for us to understand it, as we, as parents, would give our last scrap to our kids and would never see them go with out,but the animal kingdom are so different.When you think about it though,they allow their babies to go at just a few weeks old without batting an eyelid,after being so fiercly protective of them in the begining,just natures way i guess.I would just watch her closely in future as she is obviously a bit more heavy handed than most,and everything should be fine.

Could it possibly be that she is lacking calcium, this sometimes makes them act strange.
Lucy

When my sister's girl had her litter we used to put her out of the room while we fed the puppies - otherwise she would eat the lot (the food, not the puppies :) )!  She also guarded her food from them - even when they were very tiny and not at all interested in it!  We made sure there was no food around if they were unattended at any time.

Good luck

Fiona