Yes the marks would be from the puppies, so as they get bigger of course their nails will grow - so its important to keep them trimmed.

Personally I wouldnt be letting her spend to much time away from them, you dont want her to get fed up and reject them or anything like that.

Ok thank you for that it's only about 5mins at a time and she is bk to check on them and she sniffs and licks each an everyone of them lol I guess she's just making sure they are all good should her pop be soft? I read it can be cause she is eating the babies poop?

aw thats good..Yes it may be for a while, because of eatting placentas/after birth, and pups poop.

Oh thanks.... It's so hard wen you read there us signs for certain things I guess all I've really read is all the bad things that could happen to her an so it gets a little confusing wen some things are normal an others are to be concerned about I will try get a pick up of them all if I can do j post it here or is there a photo gallery to post it in x

You can post in in here, or go to the dog picture section.
Pictures will need to be added to a photo hosting site first like photo bucket though, then you just copy over the photo code

Also I wouldn't suggest letting her have cows milk as most dogs are lactose intolerant, goats milk is much better for her.

Thank u I will do that thanks very much x

I shouldn't worry too much about her leaving them for a short time. My last bitch after 3 days climbed out of the whelping box every time after feeding topping & tailing them & went to lie at the other side of the room. I was worried at first but every two hours on the dot she climbed in & fed & stimulated them. She even changed to three houly on the day it said this should happen in the book.

Thank you all x

Sounds like you have a good healthy litter of pups. I would start seeing if they will eat the soaked puppy food when they are about three weeks old. I would soak it in hot water so it is more appealing to them. They should still nurse off the mother till they are about six weeks old with puppy food offered to them several times a day.

Even with my Shih Tzu pups, they start to eat the dry kibble when they are about five weeks old, just make sure they have access to water at all times as should the mother. I free feed the mothers while they are nursing their puppies.