Chloe loves being a mother so much, she doesn't want to wean her babies.
Seriously, the little beggars have needle-like teeth and opinons and are already eating all they need in raw meat, but that doesn't phase Chloe at all. The pen is still immaculately clean, she lets them use her as a climbimg frame, she plays with them, lets them chase her tail, shares her food with them and she lets them feed whenever they want.
When Chloe had her first litter, we thought it was a bit odd (and rather sweet) that at 12 weeks we were still having to remind her it was time for the kids to grow up and leave home. Our other girls, once their babies have teeth, are like "Piss off, you 'orrible creatures! That hurts!" Scartlett, when we took her to meet her babies at 14 weeks, wanted to murder them!
Chloe just wants to tend her babies, no matter their age. We've started taking her out of the puppy pen for a few hours a day and putting her in with the rest of the gang for a rest, and she's so civilised about it. She is the sweetest, most placid Chihuahua you could ever meet, so she doesn't bark or complain. She just looks at you with this "I shouldn't be out here with the riff-raff. I have babies to care for" look that manages to be both judgemental and pleading at the same time.
Our problem, though, is we are keeping one of her daughters from this litter, so we're not sure how that's going to go. We fear she's never going to wean Peyton, and that Peyton will be just fine with that.
We are going to have to wait and see if the patience of the eternally patient Chloe really does have a limit, or we're if going to spend the next decade yelling "Peyton! Leave your poor mother alone!"
