choc_bordercollie Posted March 11, 2010 Share Posted March 11, 2010 I have a litter of 7 border collie puppies who where 5 weeks old on wednesday, they are fully weaned and their mother is no longer here as she was a terrible mum and I weaned the puppies at 3.5 weeks as I was mostly bottle feeding them and she was nasty and growling at the pups when they tried to feed, she was on lease to me so I sent her back. mum has not been here for 2 weeks now. I have another girl here who has never had a litter, she is 2 years old and I plan to mate her later this year, over the last 2 days she has taken to mothering the puppies by letting them suckle her and she even let's them suck her vulva ? She has become really protective of them and wants to be with them every waking moment and has taken to sleeping with them aswell, she started a fight with another desexed bitch I have here because she was protecting them I now have to keep them seperated. her nipples are also red raw and bleeding and her vulva looks pretty worse for ware aswell. when I seperate them she barks non stop and crys for them. my questions are: should I let her mother them or seperate them? why after 5 weeks has she now decided to care for them? and has anybody else had this before? thanks in advance Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nancyk Posted March 11, 2010 Share Posted March 11, 2010 should I let her mother them or seperate them?why after 5 weeks has she now decided to care for them? and has anybody else had this before? If she is a good natured steady bitch I would leave the puppies with her - but keep them in an area where other dogs (i.e., the desexed btich) cannot interfere. It is fairly normal for bitches to start to "aunty" puppies after 3 weeks if the mother allows it - in your case you sent the mother away and upset the natural order of things. It is important that the puppies have this assocation as it will help teach them correct behaviour. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jed Posted March 14, 2010 Share Posted March 14, 2010 What Nancy said. They do need maternal influence, and an "aunty" is always good. If they are making her raw by suckling, you can put some bitter bite (from the pet shop) or something safe, on her teats to discourage them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sandgrubber Posted March 14, 2010 Share Posted March 14, 2010 She may even surprise you and get milk. Mine do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
choc_bordercollie Posted March 14, 2010 Author Share Posted March 14, 2010 Hi, thanks guys, the puppies still get lots of "aunty time" with the older dogs, to teach them to play etc, I just want to stress I really had no choice but to send mum back she was to nasty to them and it got to the point where I had to muzzle her if she was going near the puppies. Her snarling and snapping at the pups would only not just harm them physically but mentaly aswell. I have to go get some of the bitter bite as suggested as hopefully that will put them off suckling. I had never heard of it before :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bilbo Baggins Posted March 14, 2010 Share Posted March 14, 2010 I had a maiden bitch get milk and feed her mothers pups. She always looks after the pups. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
t-time Posted March 19, 2010 Share Posted March 19, 2010 Me too Bilbo - it was a little annoying first time we had a litter (which wasn't hers). Wouldn't leave the room next to the puppies, growled at the mother if she went to toilet and left the babies alone - promptly came into milk and was discovered feeding the pups more than 2 weeks after I'd already weaned them off their mother!! But the next litter (which still wasn't hers!) this bitch was a godsend - the mother of the litter got eclampsia when the pups were 11 days old and my still maiden bitch was already in milk. Mum had to stop feeding the pups immediately so I let the maiden girl take over which she did with gusto. She was a BRILLIANT mother and has since had her own litter. I am waiting for my next litter to see if having her own litter has "cured" her of being so obsessed with babies! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
choc_bordercollie Posted March 19, 2010 Author Share Posted March 19, 2010 wow that's a great story T-time thanks for sharing, can't wait to hear if she still does it since she has had her own baby's, my bet is that she will Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tarmons Posted March 19, 2010 Share Posted March 19, 2010 (edited) For us, it was not unusual for the 'aunties' to help with rearing the litter. When one of our bitches rejected her litter after a caesar -it was her first litter, we were lucky because the aunties took over and one of the aunties was a desexed bitch and she came into milk. They were life savers and did a great job with those puppies. We did not lose a puppy. Also puppies need to learn the rules of the pack and normally they would get this valuable lesson from mum,so you are very lucky that you have a bitch who is able and willing to do this for the puppies. Visitors to the kennel couldn't get over how the other bitches would jump into the whelping box and check the babies to see if they were okay. They'd clean them up...they were very clean puppies This experience was a real eye-opener to me because I hadn't seen this before. Someone did tell me that is the norm in the wild.... the bitches in the pack help rear the puppies. With each litter after that it became the norm for the older bitches to help rear the puppies. Very fortunate that the 3 brood bitches as well as the desexed aunty were very maternal and just loved having babies around them and were not aggressive towards each other. Edited March 19, 2010 by Tarmons Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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