Mother not wanting to feed her 8 day old puppies

Question
Renee,

It's me again. Sioux did great for the first 4.5 days, however the last 3.5 days she had not wanted to feed her puppies. We have to tell her to "go to bed" and then she will get in her box and feed the puppies for 10-20 minutes. The puppies are 8 days old today and all have doubled their weight, but I fear this would not be the case if I didn't make Sioux (the mom) get in the box every 2-3 hours.

I have cut the puppies nails. The house is being kept between 73-74 degrees and there is a small heating pad in the box now that mom is not spending time in there. Today I wanted to see how long she would go if I didn't tell her to get in the box (thinking I might be over reacting) and I made her go in the box after 5 hours.

Have you ever experience this? I look forward to your insight.

Shannon

Answer
Hi again! Have you checked her breasts to see if she's starting to get an infection in them? See if she has any warm, red places on any of them. If she doesn't, then you may be looking at having to take care of the pups yourself if she completely refuses to care for them. Some dogs will do this, there's nothing you really can do if mom decides that she's not going to fool with them. You can try to get her to feed them for as long as you can, the longer the better. But you may want to get some puppy milk and bottles just in case. If you can get them to three weeks of age, you can wean them. Good luck!