Ellie’s Puppies – Day 3
Ellie continues to care for her babies with such love and devotion. The puppies are nursing well and steadily gaining weight! Ellie still spends most of her time in the whelping box but, today she joined our other dogs in the yard for a bit of fresh air and exercise.
It is always challenging trying to take pictures of puppies. Newborn puppies just eat and sleep but, they also like to wriggle and squirm. After many attempts (200 pictures) I was able to capture Ellie’s beautiful babies!
Introducing The Beautiful Girls
Introducing The Handsome Boy
Willows’Puppies – Day 9
Willows’ babies are doing very well. Healthy puppies should double their birthweight by 10 – 14 days. I am happy to say her puppies had 4 double their weight yesterday (day 8) and the other two puppies doubled their weight today (day 9) Great Job Willow!
Willow is now spending more time away from the whelping box and interacting with our other dogs outside. She has even become a little less protective and let our other dogs come in the room to see her puppies for a short visit.
Puppies in the “Neonatal Period” (day 0 – 14) spend 90% of the time sleeping and the other 10% of their time eating. Beginning on day 3 of the puppy’s life, we do ENS (Early Neurological Stimulation) and continue through day 16. Research shows that tiny struggles and stresses in small doses are good for puppies and will help them grow into strong, healthy well-adjusted adults. Benefits include greater tolerance to stress, greater resistance to disease, faster adrenal system, stronger heart rate and stronger heartbeat.
Pics of Willows’ sweet babies
Notice the new collars. Yesterday we made new collars from parachute cord. Usually, our litters are very similar, and we need the collars on from birth so we can track each puppy’s weight. But, because I can distinguish the puppies, I didn’t need them to keep track of their weight. Below are pics of Willows’ babies – sleeping!.
