Willows’ Puppies
March 15, 2022 -1 WEEK OLD
LOOKING BACK
Willows’ precious puppies are one week old today. We have had a busy week! For the first few weeks of life, a puppy cannot regulate their own body temperature. They need a warm space, their mother, and littermates to help keep them warm. This is a winter litter and it makes it more of a challenge than our summer litters to keep our room warm. We have added an electric heater to our room to help keep the temperature at a warm 27 degrees C and a heating pad to our whelping box under our vet bed.
Willow is a great first time mama. For the first three days of the puppies lives she spent all her time in the whelping box with the babies, keeping them warm, clean and making sure they nursed often. She had a good appetite and drank plenty of water from the start which is important for making good milk for her puppies. For the last few days Willow has been spending short periods of time away from her puppies, getting fresh air and exercise in the yard. But as soon as she comes in the house again, Willow runs back upstairs to check on her babies. The puppies are now experts at nursing; they can smell when Willow returns to the whelping box and quickly crawl to find her and begin their next meal.
LOOKING AHEAD TO WEEK TWO
- Much the same as week one – Eat, Sleep, Repeat!
- Puppies will continue growing
- Puppies still crawl; hind legs will become stronger
- Eyes should begin to open towards the end the week – so exciting !!!
Ellies’ Puppies
DAY ONE
Ellie is an experienced mama with a great love for her babies. She spends all her time in her whelping box protecting, feeding, cleaning, and keeping her puppies warm. Puppies are born with their eyes and ears sealed shut; they cannot see or hear. They must rely on “smell” and “touch” to crawl and find their mother.
Puppies are born with a natural instinct to nurse and Ellies’ puppies are doing great . In the first 24 hours, newborn puppies may lose up to ten percent of their birth weight. Ellies’ puppies are doing so well; they all gained weight at their first weigh-in this morning. Great job Ellie!!!
