Sorry if this is in the wrong place. Admin, move if required. I have a 5 week old litter of 3pups. Mum is too good a mother. I am finding it difficult to wean them as she will not let them eat their food and continually feeding them herself. If I separate her from them she barks and whines until she has access. They are receptive to solid food and have had scrambled egg, fish and soaked dry puppy food, but are not that hungry as she is always feeding them. She is still cleaning them at 5 weeks, in fact, sorry to be blunt, but the poo does not even hit the ground before it has been cleaned up. I am an experienced breeder and this is her second litter. She didn't have OCD last time.

Just split them up from them for 5 minutes while they get the chance to eat their meals. 

I am sort of in that situation, (4 weeks yesterday) pups sometimes eat their meal sometimes not, as soon as they wander off I let Mum back in to eat it, and she feeds them, it's up to her really.

I find this pretty normal, but it can also be breed dependent.  I'm not asking the breed Lynne but is this a toy litter?

Yes Jean, it is a toy litter. I have tried shutting her out of the room while I feed them but she just screams till I let her back in and of course as soon as they see her they want the milk bar. My concern is that they all go to their new homes in 4 weeks and they will still be dependant on mum. I have never known this happen before and have bred several litters in the past.

Haha my girls are all like that...love their babies, love their food. Only way is to take Mum away before and during food.
Mine try every trick in the book to get to the pups but I use that opportunity to feed her at the same time...away from them...
she will start to see it's worth it!

Yes giving Mum her meals at the same time as pups are fed works to keep her away long enough.

Thanks, I will try feeding her at the same time.

Lynn I have a toy breed that can't leave home until 12 weeks (as the breed club states) and I would find this perfectly normal.  Indeed, when they leave at 12 weeks it is usual for mum to give a comfort suckle before they go.

Seems like your girl is a very good mum. 

By 5 weeks, most of their nourishment should be coming from the solid food you are providing.   And we always took mum out of the whelping box when they were feeding, only letting her back in to clean up afterwards.   Our girls would do this standing up for the puppies to 'comfort suckle' but as soon as she felt their sharp teeth, that was it - out please.

If she's kicking off, get her right out of the whelping room!   She's being naughty!    We didn't do what a lot of breeders do, remove mum at a certain age, but by 5 weeks, you are not wrong - she's showing signs of OCD!!!

For me, it's more important that the puppies get used to surviving on a solid diet from now on, than to continue to take most of their nourishment from mum.   And for her, she needs to be starting to scatter her milk, which won't happen as long as they continue to nurse off her.   This weaning process should be pretty much complete (onto solids) by 6 weeks, with the remaining couple of weeks for you to make sure each puppy is established in their diet and by 8 weeks +, ready to go home.

If she's still cleaning up after them (mine pretty much stopped once they knew their pups were onto solids), get in there and remove the stools yourself, before she gets to them.   This is a tad over and above!!

It's not a case of moving the stools Mamabas. I have never actually seen any. As soon as puppies squats she is behind it cleaning as they poo. She has actually cleaned one puppy so much that his little bum was sore and I had to put sudocrem on it. It was fine the following day. I never remove mum early as the puppies need to learn from her and their siblings. No teeth yet but maybe she will stop when they come through.

I agree..my mums and babies love to be together, they play and cuddle, I would never take that away from them.

> No teeth yet but maybe she will stop when they come through.

This is why to some extent advice is size/breed specific.

My pups had teeth trough at three weeks, and all of them by four weeks.

As Mamabas said by five weeks they will be getting a goodly proportion of their nourishment from their meals.

With my girls it is only at about 5 weeks that Mum starts restricting access to the Milkbar.

Tends to coincide with pups starting to spend time outdoors, but they will certainly still be feeding several times a day to at least 6 weeks.

Most of my girls will carry on cleaning up after pups indoors, if I don't bat them to it.

What a mum!   I had one who from the start, would pee her litter, but would have NOTHING to do with the other to the point they were constipated early on and I was actually sitting them in a bowl of warm water to try to help them - no amount of me trying to stimulate the area like mum should have been doing, worked.   Nightmare.   And she was one who would whine to get out of the box, but as soon as she was out, and the puppies settling down, she'd whine to go back in, stirring them all up again     We only took one (good!) litter from her.

I'm kind of surprised there are no teeth at 5 weeks as mine were at least erupting by the end of the third week.   Are they managing to eat solids, if they can only 'gum' the food?

I didn't remove mum early, my mums wanted out pretty much as soon as they knew I was weaning them and only went in to clean up and allow a degree of comfort suckling, certainly by 5 weeks.  Our weaning was pretty casual, according to the individual litter and mum.   Each to their own, but I didn't really see much 'learning' going on from mum with mine.   I kept them back until around 10 weeks however, so they played together and I was certain they were ready to go to their new homes.   Some I'd let go by 8 weeks but only if I knew the new owners and they were experienced with puppies, and ideally, my breed.

Things have got better, I have managed to get them to eat 3 meals so far today. The teeth are starting to appear so hopefully thinks will improve from now on. Saw my first poo today lol. Mum was outside so puppy was allowed to poo in peace.

What a difference a few days makes. Puppes now on 4 solid meals per day and mum is grumping at them when they try to suckle. She is still cleaning them (they are 6 weeks tomoro) which is great for me lol. Seen 3 more poos today when I shut her out of the room. Unfortunately they have been watching mum to much as they pooed and then wanted to eat it ...yuk.