[marysole]

Well my question is my dog who had the puppies ran away about two days ago, and we can't find her anywhere, she left 7 puppies who are 2 and half months... I'm feeding them puppy food... they have teeth now.. and puppy food.. I'm wondering what shold I do to take care of them? Do they miss their mom I'm not sure.. what should I do? Thanks

[labman]

They should have been on all puppy chow a month ago, so the lack of the mother is no problem. Do they have their shots? My Xanthe was whelped in early September and she has had 4 of the combo shots. The truth is, the earlier shots you may have neglected can be made up for by getting them now. A trip to the vet now would be an excellent experience for them.

If you haven't been, it is extremely important to start getting those puppies exposed to a wide verity of people, men, women, children, etc. They also need to encounter such terrors as vacuum cleaners, ride in a car, and everything else a pet has to live with. Many puppies are ruined by seeing little else than their mother, littermates and the kennel they live in. Even so called reputable breeders often neglect the vital socialization. On another site I see questions almost every day from people that bought a 3-4 month old puppy, and it isn't doing well, not accepting them, fearing strangers and noise, not accepting being alone, etc.. Very few people have the resources to properly care for a litter after 6 weeks. That is why puppies should go to their forever homes at 7-8 weeks. Before that, they have important lessons to learn from their mother and each other. After that, they need greatly expanded human contact if they are going to be fit into the human world most pets live in.

The one thing they must not be exposed to is sick dogs, or even a place where a sick dog eliminated in the last 6 months.