Echo is a loving and attentive mama and she continues doing an amazing job caring for her babies. We have been kept busy this week as well with many of our daily tasks. For instance, some of the tasks include ENS exercises, cleaning, laundry, watching as puppies nurse, bottle feeding, weighing, and collar checks. As a result of both Echo’s and our care, our two weeks old puppies are growing bigger and stronger with each passing day.
Why do puppies twitch?
A quote from the Puppy Culture Program we follow while raising our puppies explains Puppy Twitches.
“This twitching actually has a functional purpose – “activated sleep” helps build muscle and form the connections that will allow the puppies to develop motor coordination. This is why twitching is a key indicator that the puppy is healthy and developing normally.”
Puppy Culture
Milestones
When raising puppies, we watch for Milestones to gage the progress of our puppies. This week Echo’s puppies reached two milestones.
Weigh-In
The first milestone the puppies reached this week was Doubling Their Birthweight. Unquestionably, this is a milestone we pay close attention to because when puppy isn’t gaining enough weight it indicates there is a problem.
On average large breed puppies double their birthweight between day 10 and day 14. Because Echo has a large litter we justifiably would expected that the puppies might be delayed in reaching this milestone.
However this was not the case for Echo’s litter because some of Echo’s puppies reached this milestone early. Three puppies doubled their birth weight on day eight. Following close behind on day 9, one more puppy reached the milestone. Four other puppies followed suite with one puppy doubling on day 10 and three on day 11.
However two or Echo’s puppies, took a little longer to reach this milestone. Because they are our smallest puppies it is hard to compete with their larger littermates. Therefore we have been intervening to help them achieve this milestone. Firstly with a waiting box to separate the largest puppies during feeding time and secondly by supplementing with puppy formula.
Finally our last two puppies reached the milestone. First of the two was Black girl on day 13 followed by Red girl today on day 14.
Eyes Opened
Another milestone was reach later in the week – Eyes Opening. Puppy’s eyes open between day 10 and day 14. While doing our ENS on day 11, I was excited to notice that two of our puppies had opened their eyes. Black girl and Purple girl, our two apricot parti puppies tied for the title “First Puppy to open their eyes”. It is always so exciting to see the puppies look back at me – I think they look more “alive”!
Soon after, and day by day the seven more puppies opened the eyes too. We are still waiting to see our Dark Blue Boy looking back at us…..maybe today he will open his eyes too.
Day 11
Daily Cleaning
As we stated before newborn puppies are susceptible to disease. For this reason it is important to keep their area clean. We clean and disinfect their whelping box daily. During this time we put the puppies in the basket.
Vet Bedding
In addition to the daily cleaning, we will replace the Vet Bedding when needed sometimes two or three times a day. As you can image, this makes for a lot of laundry LOL
What is Vet Bedding? At first glance, you may think it is sheepskin. It is in fact a manmade version of a sheepskin. It’s made from artificial fibres and has two sections: first, an underlying mesh, similar to the “skin” part of a sheepskin, and second, the comfy, soft, springy artificial fleece part that is attached to the mesh.
Vet Bedding is a costly investment but when we began our breeding program without reservation it was imperative that we provide our puppies with the best. Undeniably, vet bedding provides excellent traction for our puppies and keeps them warm and dry. It is important that puppies have proper traction while nursing, moving around the whelping box, and learning to walk as this traction protects the puppies growing joints.
Puppies return to a clean whelping box as mama Echo looks on. When all the puppies are back in the whelping box, Echo checks things out 😊
Day 12
Too cute not to share
I thought I would share a cute video that I caught of one of Echo’s puppies. Echo had poked her head into the whelping box making sure all was okay. While doing so, dark blue boy, whose eye’s had yet to open, could smell his mama. He then crawled over to the opening and began to climb out. LOL😂
Transitional Period
The first 12 weeks of a puppy’s life are incredibly important. This is an almost magical time when a breeder has the power to change the outcome of a puppy’s life by what we choose to teach them. By doing just the right things at just the right time, we can give your puppy the best start possible.
Because every puppy and litter is different, we look for “Behavioural Markers” to identify the beginning and end of each developmental period. The transitional period begins when the puppy’s eyes open and ends when they first startle upon hearing sounds. Now that the puppies’ eyes are open they have entered the Transitional Period.
Looking Ahead to Week Three
- ENS exercises will continue until day 16
- Puppies will continue to eat and sleep most of their day
- Sight will become clearer
- Ears will open and they will begin to hear.
- Puppies will practice walking on all fours, strengthening their hind legs
- They will become more aware of their littermates and start to interact
- Puppies will start to vocalize
