Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My pups are currently 5 weeks and it appears that the mommy shows no interest in her pups at all...in fact she eats their food and removes the blanket from the welping box so she can sleep on it outside the box. Would it hurt them(emotionally) to remove her from the area since she seems to pay no attention to them anymore? Is this normal? The main problem is that she keeps removing their blanket and the welping box gets so filthy that I'm afraid no one will want to purchase the little piglets because it is impossible to keep the welping box clean without the bedding. Thoughts??

Keep her around them. Even if she isn't paying that much attention to them now she may in a few weeks, especially when they start getting more playfull and nippy.
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I wouldn't remove her yet either..Those puppies still need to learn from mom, and as other poster mentions, when they start getting real bratty with her, she will teach them some manners.

All my breeder friends never removed the mother unless the puppies are 8 weeks old and if they are still in residence, they are with mom part of the time, sleep alone that type of thing.
diane

I have a liter of 6 pups that are 8 wks old now, Mom started to do thesame thing when they were about 4 wks old. Once the pups start to eat and show no more interest in breastfeeding, mom gets a little bit jealous and begins to pay less attention to them. This is perfectly normal, it is all part of the weaning process and very healthy. if mom never gets removed from them, they will never fully be weaned by 8 weeks.