when should you take the mother away from the babies? i read where ed weans at 5 weeks . i was always told atleast 6 weeks. ialso read about younes talking bad about people selling puppies at5 weeks . also i thought it was illegal to sell puppies under8 weeks. if you can wean at 5weeks then what is the bad part of selling at 5 weeks?

Hello all!

I have been away from the board for awhile, occasionally checking in, but now that summer is drawing to a close, I hope to have more time to join in the conversations again and learn, learn, learn! Anyway, I came across this post and felt it would be a good place to start as part of my summer has been spent whelping and rearing puppies.

To answer your questions, Iva, first one really should not "take the mother away" from the pups. Weaning begins when you start the pups on solid foods, NOT taking away the mother's milk. The pups will need to nurse occasionally while they are weaning. The more solid foods that are introduced to the pups, the less they will rely on their mother's milk.

Also, the mother teaches her pups how to behave like dogs. They learn proper communications, behaviors, social skills, and bite inhibitions from their mother and other litter mates. This is also exactly why the pups should stay with their mother and the rest of the litter until they are at least 7-8 weeks old.

As far as when to introduce solid foods to the pups, you can begin at around 4 weeks with milky/mushy canned puppy food (or preferably raw diet) and gradually increasing the amount of solid foods and introducing dry food that is softened in water (again the preference is a raw diet--it is healthier--but perhaps some others on this board more experienced with feeding raw can help us out here). The pups should be completely off their mother's milk at about 6-7 weeks, although I have seen some 7 & 8 week old pups latch onto a teat just for the heck of it. The thing to remember here is that there really is no set time-table for weaning. Let nature take its course.

As a final thought, I don't believe it is illegal anywhere in the US to sell pups under 8 weeks (someone please correct me if I'm wrong--I'd be interested to know). But those that do sell pups at 5 weeks are nothing more than puppy millers IMHO. I think this practise should be illegal, I just don't know how it could be regulated without opening up a whole new can of worms such as the Puppy Protection Act did.

Anyway, hope this helps you.

It's illegal in Maryland to sale a puppy before 8 weeks.

Anyone know Ontario laws on selling before 8 weeks - well known breeder here sells at 5 weeks - go figure many end up in need of rescue with behavioral issues. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad.gif" alt="" />

Really!?! Wow, I honestly did not think that was against the law anywhere. I must say I'm glad to hear it, though I do think that 7 weeks is not too early. Is this an "uninforced" law? How does the state keep track? Perhaps we should start a new thread on this topic. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

In Florida, the pups have to be 8 wks old and a health certificate given with each one by a vet after their 8 wk shots. Health cert is from the state.

Your well known breeder needs to have his name associated with this practise. Any breeder that places their puppies at 5 weeks of age is a lazy SOB. This is a terrible practise. Post his name here and let him get some well deserved free advertsining.

Humans have a hard time understanding puppy development until they've been in dogs a very long time. That extra 2, 3, even 1 wk is an enormously significant developmental period. I have seen very few pups who were placed at 5-6 wks that didn't end up with problems. Eight wks seems to be an optimal age. And, to make it more confusing, if you keep the entire litter together much beyond 10-12 wks (10 is long enough for me, personally), you get a whole other set of problems.

Definitely, post away as to who this breeder is. Consider it a public service.

The New Knowledge of Dog Behaviour by Phifensomething(lost on this name) explaines the week by week developement of puppies. It's a great read.

I agree, I've found 10 weeks works out best. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />