Our 3 year old St. Bernard had her first litter this weekend. When she went into labor, we moved the male to another dog run. It took about 8 hours to deliver 7 pups. Four of them were still born.

At first, she did not seem to want much to do with her pups. In fact, she bit through the lip of one of them. The pups are crawling all around and can get through the fence of the pen, so we are keeping them in a box. We fed them with a bottle the first night but now take them out about every 3 hours and she does nurse them.

Almost 22 hours after the last of the 8 pups were born, she had two more still born pups.

One question, how do we know when there are no more in her? We can not feel them, but we could not feel the last two either.

Second question, how often do the pups need to be taken out to eat and how long should they nurse each time?

Any other comments would be appreciated.

Why isnt the mum in the house? you can not have pups in an out side pen and you should have the vet out to look at her and give her a check up, the pups need to go back to mum every 2 hours and to be given enough time to feed and then for her to clean them and make them pee/poo, is she doing this?and do not let the male near her or the pups, BUT YOU MUST GET A VET TO CHECK HER.

I was under the impression the pups were in an inside pen,...what makes you think they are outside ( I could be wrong..and being blind and totally missing something of course).

it seems the bitch and male where in pen together, took the male out when bitch had puppies, so it sounds as if the pups are out side in pen, but as the pups can get throu fence they have put a box in side for pups, i would take mum to vets for check up, and i would bring pups in house to keep warm, temperature drops at night, and i think puppies should be born in the home,not outside!!!!!