Content
- When should the puppies be separated from their mother?
- breastfeeding
- dog socialization
- So when should we separate a dog from its mother?
- Problems caused by premature weaning
- If you want the best for your dog, you must wait
- Advice for separating a dog from its mother
take into account the psychological and physical aspects of a puppy's development is essential to know at what age to separate from its parent. Doing it ahead of time can be very harmful, causing your growth gaps or emotional imbalances.
It is customary to fall in love with a dog as soon as we see him, they are really adorable, however, we must spend time preparing the dog's arrival, reflecting on the great responsibility we will have, collecting all the necessary information and preparing the house for its arrival . Obviously, afterwards we felt a great impatience to have him at home.
But the first thing we must address is not our impatience, but the animal's needs, and it brings us to the following question: At what age can you separate the puppies from the hand? In this article by Animal Expert we show you all the information you need.
When should the puppies be separated from their mother?
When we talk about the separation of puppies from their mother, we must first clarify that there is an essential time and another that is ideal. Taking into account two very important factors, socialization and breastfeeding, see below when to separate puppies from their mother:
breastfeeding
One of the most important reasons why the puppy should stay as long as possible with his mother is feeding, since only breast milk contains a nutritional composition that is exactly what the puppy needs for its proper development and maturation.
The bitch's milk contains colostrum, a substance that is offered to puppies in the first days of life. colostrum protects them preventing any infection. After a while, the bitch's breast milk will provide the puppies with all the essential nutrients for good growth, as well as defenses, enzymes and hormones. At this stage, the mother must be well fed, reflecting this in a better health of the dogs.
dog socialization
In addition to breastfeeding, another very important aspect for which the puppy must spend a minimum amount of time with his mother is that his education does not begin in the human family.
During the maternal time period the mother starts with the dog's socialization, and teaches it how to communicate with its peers, this in turn strengthens the dog's security, since it, being a sociable animal, has basic need the feeling of belonging to a litter. If a dog does not socialize correctly, it is possible that it will suffer behavioral problems in the future, such as insecurity, fear and reactivity with others of the same species. In addition to teaching you the basic rules of communication between dogs, your mother will also teach you how to act in the environment in which they live and how to coexist with other living beings (humans, cats, birds, etc.).
So when should we separate a dog from its mother?
The minimum time that a puppy must be with its mother is 6 weeks, period in which the puppy starts weaning. However, the most common is that weaning lasts until approximately 8 weeks of life. So yes, this is a great time to separate the dog from its mother.
It should be noted that the longer the dog is with his mother, the better it will be for him, so it is recommended to leave the dog with his mother up to 3 months of age about.
Problems caused by premature weaning
Dogs should only be weaned prematurely in cases where the mother cannot take care of them for health reasons or behavioral disorders, in other cases, respect a minimum contact of 2 months with the mother is essential.
You should bear in mind that premature weaning of a puppy can cause several problems:
- Decreased immune system response
- Behavior disorders in the adult stage
- Hyperactivity and anxiety
- bad behavior with other dogs
If you want the best for your dog, you must wait
As you can see, prematurely separating a puppy from its mother can involve numerous problems and contrary to what many people think, it does not help in adapting to the human home.
When a dog arrives at your home, it will continue to need several important cares, and you will be responsible for it, however, this care does not replace under any concept the important role of the mother during the first months of the dog's life.
In this sense, you should know that if you truly want the best for your dog, it is not recommended to have it before 2 months of age..
Advice for separating a dog from its mother
From 8 weeks of age and progressively, we must motivate the puppy to start weaning. You should offer them moist food or soaked feed, thus facilitating the adaptation to their new diet.
It is important to point out that we shouldn't keep all puppies away from their mother at the same time, especially before 8 weeks of age, as it can lead to depression in the bitch as well as problems related to milk production, such as mastitis. On the contrary, if we wait long enough, the bitch will instinctively know that her puppies are independent and the separation will not be negative.
