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New mom dog not feeding puppies. Is she overwhelmed or rejecting them?

Updated on September 23rd, 2025

Pet's info: Dog | German Shepherd | Female | spayed | 1 year and 4 months old | 70.5 lbs

I have a two german shephered dogs. The female one was pregnant and just gave birth to 10 puppies today. But she refused to feed them and didn't even lick them. The puppies' father even tried to lick them. She seemed in shock or overwhelmed by them. Even We bottle fed them all, we just found a dead puppy in her place. She also refused to eat and drink in the morning but she just started eating right now. But i am afraid the rest of the puppies will die like their brother.

1 Answer

Most Helpful Answer

Answered By Dr. Melanie, BVSc MS

Veterinarian

Published on May 2nd, 2017

I'm so sorry that one of your puppies has died! It does sound like Jacky isn't a good mother if she isn't feeding them or licking them, and that could be due to her young age. It's never recommended to breed a female dog on her first heat because she won't be emotionally or physically mature enough to care for them properly as you are seeing with Jacky. Some dogs are also just poor mothers naturally, and that could be the case as well with her. You are going to have to raise these puppies yourself if you want them to have the best chance to survive, but please keep in mind that newborn puppies are very fragile. Care for them is intensive and there may be other ones who don't make it. I will put a link below to a website detailing how to raise orphan puppies. As for Jacky, I would be quite concerned she would repeat this behavior with future litters, so I would recommend having her spayed before her next heat. When you see this behavior from a female dog, it's not recommend to have them have additional litters.

http://www.2ndchance.info/orphanpuppy.htm

2Pet Parents found this answer helpful

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