Thomas E. Alderman, age 11, of St. Maries, Idaho, for his question:

Do puppies have baby teeth?

Human beings begin to replace their primary teeth with permanent teeth at around the age of six. This happens early in life and most of us forget all about it in later years. Puppies and kittens also have these tooth replacement problems. They start life with fragile little primary teeth in their jaws. But after a few weeks, these baby teeth fall out by themselves, one by one. However, special tooth growing buds in the jaw bone already are busy making replacements. The permanent teeth begin to appear almost at once and they grow very fast.

Your puppy cannot do much bone chewing with his baby teeth. This is one reason why you feed him soft cereals and mushy meal.: You may notice when he loses a tooth or two and the little fella may be a bit cranky. While replacing his primary teeth with permanent ones, he may feel a bit of discomfort. He may want to chew and nag on something tough. So give him a rubber bone or one of those bone type dog bis¬cuits. Then he is less likely to chew on something too hard for his new teeth   and also less likely to chew on a chair leg.