FebruaRy 7TH, 2019 – DAY 7 – 1 WEEK OLD
LOOKING BACK
Wow, our 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 I can’t rely on the sunshine to keep my room extra warm as I do with summer litters. We have added an electric heater to our room to help keep the temperature at a warm 29 degrees C.
Ruska is a wonderful mama. For the first 3 days of the puppies lives she spent all her time in the whelping box with the them, keeping them warm, clean and making sure they nursed often. In the past, I had to encourage her to eat and drink but after this whelp, she had a good appetite and drank plenty of water from the start. For the last few days she has been spending some time away from them. She enjoyed a little exercise in the yard with our other dogs. Ruska looked so happy being able to run again, which is something she wasn’t able to do the last week or so of pregnancy. She even found a large stick in the yard to chew LOL! But as soon as she came in the house again, she ran upstairs check on her babies.
Puppies are born with their eyes and ears sealed shut; they cannot see or hear. They have to rely on “smell” and “touch” to find their mother. Puppies are born with a natural instinct to nurse but as the days pass, they have become more proficient at it. The puppies are now experts at nursing; they can smell when Ruska returns to the whelping box. They wake and make a mad dash 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 !!!
Thank you for these wonderful updates! It is so wonderful to get to watch them grow.