Baby Tikva might be with me tomorrow morning. Too young but l will be able to look after her - I doubt the owners would. in another week. I have baby bottles, puppy baby milk although I will wean her on raw as soon as possible. And she will be loved and will know me as I am.
Yes I think she be better off with you weaning her, you look after her & she in turn will look after you xxx
Sorry Tina, I don't agree. Obviously it's your decision Malka, and I can quite understand why you don't want to wait. However, I would be inclined to leave it a little longer, especially as you think that she is still under 4 weeks. While she is having her Mother's milk, she is getting her immune system boosted, and as good as some puppy milks are, they are only substitutes and don't pass on those precious antibodies.
I agree and cant understand that If the mother has plenty of milk and looking after the puppies why on earth take it away so young ,not only will it be missing out on mothers milk but also socially as well.
Momma dog is wandering outside and they have at least another four or five dogs that I have seen also wandering outside.. The puppies are now trying to climb out of the box and messing everywhere so either I rescued one, young as she was, getting milk substitute from. my Vet, knowing that I had saved one, or I left them all. What would you do? Tikva is sleeping in my lap. She has puppy milk substitute and is content, so what more could I ask?
Welcome to Breedia, little Tikva. Grow strong and bright for your new Mum. @Malka, I hope Tikva grows to be happy, healthy and clever, and becomes your perfect companion.
She is so tiny - even smaller than Ziva was. But is, so far, doing strong. She is happy with the milk substitute but I have also offered her cut up meat [ox lung] which she yum yumed and she already knows what the puppy pad in the salon is for. I mean I only brought her home this morning but she already is learning things?
Messed up post. Sorry. Tikva is very very young but I am perfectly capable of looking after her. Something that the owners of her dog mother probably cannot do. I did not expect to bring her home today but had gotten the message that the pups were beginning to cause problems therefore if I was prepared to take Tikva then please come and take her. Which is why Tikva is now here and Tikva is where she needed to be.
I hope she thrives and grows strong and healthy, Malka. Such a pity that she couldn't have stayed longer with mum, but, hopefully, she has the next best thing - someone to care for and love her.
She is doing good B"H but so tiny. I had no choice but to bring her home and am doing the best I can with the milk substitute and weaning and she actually prefers finely cut up raw meat to her bottles! I had no choice. She was the smallest and needed more care than the others, who had already climbed out of their box since yesterday. She is not a runt, she is just very small, and had I not brought her home I am not sure if she would have coped. But I could not leave her there and knew that I could look after her. And or she will flourish or she will not, but I am doing the best I can for her. She is just so tiny and so very young. But at least I know I can look after her.
Agree with the above, there is no reason at all to take these pups away from their dam so young, its not like they are orphaned, or the bitch has abandoned them... your decision Malka, lets hope its the right one.
Of cause you did.......... you could have walked away from this litter or insisted they stay with their dam till they were at least 6 weeks, you`ve bred litters before Malka, so you are not ignorant of the necessity of a dam rearing her pups, for both the well being of them all. Yo also know that dams DO get out of the whelping box and leave their pups from time to time, your experience would have been better served by helping the owner of the bitch to keep the dam and pups together,,,, taking a pup away before it is 4 weeks old, is going to interrupt all the social skills it would have learnt from the dam and its siblings..lets hope your pup does not suffer any behavioral problems due to being taken from the litter so young.
Jackie - this morning momma dog was outside with maybe three or four other dogs. The puppies, apart from Tikva, were all outside their box - so different to yesterday and had I not brought her home I do not think she would have survived. I have hand-reared a number of puppies from birth so know exactly what I am doing with Tikva - who is being fed on milk replacement "Enriched with Colostrum". She is also being slowly weaned. If I had not brought her home the chance of her surviving was nil. Now she drinks milk supplement, she eats finely cut up meat, she pees and poos when I take her in the yard, and will climb out of her bed and pee/poo on the puppy pad next to it. The fact is that the owner of the bitch could not be bothered and did not want the aggro of the puppies. What did you want me to do? This baby Tikva is good on the milk replacement and will also eat cut up raw meat. She has pee'd and poo'd outside, and has also staggered out of her bed to pee on the puppy pad next to it. Or she will survive or she will not. But she would not have survived had I not brought her home and given her the chance.
You don`t know that at all, you are just assuming she would nt, you said yourself she was not ill or undernourished, just the smallest, a couple more days you could have seen a massive difference in the pup, the best place for that pup was with its mother and siblings, taking a pup from its mother at such a young age is wrong..specially in these circumstances, I really dont understand why you did it to be honest!
I agree totally with Jackie that pup should be with its mum. What on earth was you thinking removing it. It needs its mum and siblings to learn from not you. I didn't think you wanted a puppy Malka. You said when dear poor Pereg died that you were going to wait and get an older dog. What happens if your health gets bad again and you end up in hospital what will happen to this poor pup. You have always said how you struggle with your health to do things and yet you take one so young that will need so much. So what will happen to the other pups if things are so bad. Have they been left to die. I feel so sad about the whole situation.
I am with you Malka you did the right thing by bringing Tikva home with you, many times I have seen on other pet forums where the unexpected breeder has lost 2 or more puppies as they never rotated them round so all the puppies had the richest milk, I am glad you have Tikva home with you xx
Tikva is doing fine. She slept in her crate [the one I bought for Ziva] and only woke up once for food. The problem then was she did not want to go back to sleep but we did manage a couple of hours a bit later. At the moment she is exploring and vocalising non-stop and oh is she noisy. She is happy, she has been exploring everywhere, not shut in a small room as she and the other pups were - and I know I did the right thing. Other people might disagree but I am happy in the decision I made. The other puppies will probably be dumped soon as they are already causing problems with mess - and it is not in "the girlfriend's" house, whoever she is. I have given Tikva a chance and all being well she will continue to thrive, but I worry about the other puppies as nobody has a clue how to look after them and momma dog seems to have deserted them and the owner of momma dog appears to have vanished.
Your going to have a special bond with Tikva & she's going to love you & protect you, the same way all hand reared puppies do
Malka, going back over your posts, you had every intention o bring this pp away from its dam and siblings from the moment you went to see them, that`s a little different from you "rescuing " it from certain death if left with its mum. You are depriving this pup from the natural environment it needed to develop into a well socialized dog...it seems you just could`nt wait and had to have it NOW!!
