Puppy Teething Timeline: When Baby Teeth Fall Out and Adult Teeth Come In

Baby teeth are usually all in by 6-8 weeks, start falling out around 12 weeks, and the full adult set of 42 teeth is typically in by 6-7 months. Swollen gums, chewing everything in reach, and the odd blood-spotted toy are all normal parts of that stretch.

The full timeline

Small and toy breeds sometimes run a few weeks behind this on the back end of the timeline. If your puppy is well past 7 months and you can still see or feel baby teeth, that's a vet visit, not a wait.

What's actually happening in the mouth

A puppy has 28 baby teeth and grows into 42 adult teeth — more teeth, in a bigger jaw, replacing a smaller set. The extra molars that come in around 5-6 months have no baby-tooth predecessor; they're new, which is part of why the second half of teething can look like it's starting over just as you think it's ending.

The gum irritation from teeth pushing up through soft tissue is what drives the chewing. It isn't misbehavior — it's the puppy version of relief.

Bleeding gums and swallowed teeth

A little blood is one of the more alarming-looking parts of normal teething, and it's usually nothing. A loose baby tooth pulls away from a small blood vessel as it falls, so a pink-tinged spot of drool on a toy or a fleck of blood in the water bowl is typical. It should be brief — a spot here and there, not active bleeding you can watch happen.

You almost never need to find the tooth itself. Most baby teeth are swallowed during normal chewing or eating and pass through without incident; going looking for 28 tiny teeth to "count them off" isn't necessary and most owners never find more than a couple.

Call the vet instead of waiting if you see steady or repeated bleeding from one spot, a puppy pawing constantly at its mouth, or a tooth that looks like it's hanging by tissue rather than simply loose — those go beyond ordinary teething.

Retained baby teeth: a vet conversation, not a wait-and-see

Sometimes an adult tooth erupts alongside a baby tooth that hasn't fallen out yet, rather than pushing it out first. That's a retained deciduous tooth, and it's common enough in small and toy breeds — narrow jaws leave less room for the transition to happen cleanly.

It isn't something to monitor at home indefinitely. Two teeth sharing one socket crowds the bite, can push the adult tooth into a crooked position, and traps food and plaque between them in a spot that's hard to clean. The usual fix is a vet extracting the retained baby tooth, often timed alongside a spay or neuter surgery if one is already scheduled around the same age. Bring it up at whichever vet visit falls after 7 months if you notice a baby tooth that hasn't moved.

Teething chewing vs. boredom chewing

Both look like "the puppy is chewing everything," but they call for different responses. A few tells that separate them:

A teething puppy chewing a table leg is chasing gum relief; an under-exercised adolescent doing the same thing is chasing stimulation it isn't getting elsewhere. If the chewing continues well past 7 months once the adult teeth are in, treat it as a boredom or management issue rather than teething, and look at exercise and enrichment rather than another chew toy.

Signs of normal teething

• Increased chewing on anything within reach, including furniture and hands
• Mild drooling
• Small spots of blood on toys or bedding (from a loose or falling tooth)
• Slightly swollen or reddened gums
• A day or two of reduced interest in hard kibble

Signs to call the vet about

• A retained baby tooth still present well after the matching adult tooth has erupted
• Persistent bad breath, significant drooling, or visible gum bleeding beyond a spot or two
• A puppy that stops eating, not just eating less enthusiastically
• Visible swelling of the face or jaw
• Any tooth that looks broken, chipped, or discolored

None of this is something to diagnose from home — a vet can tell a retained tooth or an abscess apart from ordinary teething in a two-minute look.

Managing the chewing

The chewing itself isn't optional, so the job is directing it. This is exactly the phase where how to stop puppy biting overlaps with teething — a lot of "biting" at this age is a sore-gummed puppy looking for something to press on.

Cold is doing real work here — freezing a wet cloth or a stuffed toy numbs sore gums the same way an ice pack would for a person. Rotate two or three chews so there's always a cold one ready.

What to avoid

• Real bones and antlers. These are the two chews most often defended as "natural," and vets commonly flag both as too rigid for a puppy's still- forming teeth. A simple test some vets suggest: if you wouldn't be comfortable rapping the chew against your own kneecap, it's too hard for a puppy's teeth either.
• Hard nylon chews carry the same risk on a still-forming bite, for the same reason: something rigid enough not to give at all transfers the full bite force back into the tooth.
• Tug games with heavy force while adult teeth are still seating in the jaw.
• Ice cubes as a regular chew. This one is genuinely debated — plenty of owners use them without issue, and an occasional ice cube is unlikely to cause harm. But it sits in the same hardness category as bones and antlers, so treat it as an occasional novelty rather than a go-to chew, especially once the adult back teeth are in.

The safer rule across all of these: a chew that flexes slightly under the puppy's bite is doing its job; one that doesn't give at all is putting that force straight into the tooth.

What to do next

Keep two or three chew textures in rotation through the whole window, expect a second wave of interest around 5-6 months when the molars come in, and use your puppy's next vet visit to confirm the adult set has come in clean, with nothing retained.