Hi, this is my first post and to introduce myself, I have a bitch who has 6 beautiful babies and this is my first ever litter of pups so a complete novice in this field! The pups are 5 wks old today.

All the babies appear lively, healthy and full of life (worming has begun following all advice from vet) but my concern is that the mum no longer wants to feed them. For the past week I have been giving the babies solids (a recommended puppy food that's moistened) and they get about 4 feeds a day and mum will only go in with them for about 2 minutes in the morning and in the evening and then just leaps back out again. Her babies do have huge teeth and I can see she is getting sore now but am concerned that the babies are too young to have so little milk from her.

I am right to be worried and should I be supplementing them with Whelpi or anything like that?

Please excuse my ignorance also if I'm being a bit daft!

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You are doing fine mum has had enough thats okay you really should feed them 5 times aday one of those should be milk not cows but goats you can buy it from the supermarkets well done.

I give mine evaporated milk - diluted as directed in the morning about 10.30. after they have had their breakfast and play. But you can use Welpi/Lactol . When they are nearly ready to nap I give them as much milk as they want ( but start with a little ) and then they go off to sleep. They get another big drink about half an hour before I go to bed, it helps them sleep well I'm sure. I agree with corso, 5 meals would be better, you can drop to 4 at 7-8 weeks. It quite normal for a bitch to cut down on feeding them at 5 weeks, though some are happy to carry on for much longer. :-)

You may find that she will let them feed a bit more in about a week. My last breeding bitch stopped feeding her pups at this age because they were hanging off her too painfully (at this stage she was standing up to feed them). In another week they had grown that bit more not to pull so much, so she was happy to let them 'top up' again!
:)