The pups have opened their eyes but I am still supplementing a couple of them.  Some have also opened their hearing too.  They now make noises when they hear things and I have the radio on all day.  Soon they will be up on their feet and really moving around.  Soon I will be putting the whelping box away and setting up the 4×8 play pen, with one end for learning to go potty.

We made big strides this week.  All the pups are thriving and gaining weight.  No eyes open as yet but this coming week that will happen.  The biggest advance was mom becoming more maternal and started licking and cleaning her pups.  They have become real to her finally.  You can see they are also becoming more sable looking with the merling becoming less obvious.  They are really pretty pups looking at them from the show/standard world.  There are two boys who have not needed any help what so ever they help themselves to mom anytime she is available.  The little girl is now gaining wt quickly to catch up.

I wanted to mention to those getting one of these pups that their 8 wks vet checks and 1st vaccines are scheduled for Nov. 22 a Friday, so they can go to their new homes after that but that is Thanksgiving Week so if you have big plans then they can wait until the next week to leave so they do not have a lot of exposure to outside dogs or people that first week.  

 

I almost lost this one this week.  Skipping to the end of the story she was constipated and plugged

up in 24 hrs was very bad.  I ran thin stream of warm water in bathroom sink and holding her belly 

up let it run on her anus.  Meanwhile rubbing with soft small 4×4 and eventually after 10 minutes

had a whole pile if bright yellow soft clay like poop.  Remember Mom does not lick them constantly 

which normally happens.  I do the job every 3-4 hrs and she did have some that day but I did 

not know she was full of it.  Anyway here she is back to sucking like crazy on mom,  Mom does

not have lots of milk so I put the two boys who keep her flowing because when ever they are hungry 

they find the milk bar and go to town. I let them get the milk flowing so she lets it down, then I put the

littler ones on her on their nipples.  I just move them to another one.  They are all gaining weight 

now every day.  

The pups on day 4.  

Mom started having seizures on Sunday night so on Monday Sept 30 she had a c-section.  It has taken a whole week to get every one going forward and gaining weight.  She had 6 but I lost one.  There are two girls and 3 boys.  They are all Sable Merles.  The little dark spots at this age is the merling but they will mostly look like sables as time passes.  It does not affect the puppy in any way except they look a bit different when grown, very pretty actually a bit exotic.  

So mom does not have much milk unfortunately so I am helping with bottle formula every 3-4 hrs around the clock.  I will post more as we get our routine down more pat.  Desi is also being treated for the seizures.  We do not know if they are pregnancy related or came out of nowhere but once we are past this hormonal time she will come off the medicine and test if she still has issues with Seizure.  They did not affect the pups.  That black dish in the box is called a whelping nest it is heated so they do not get chilled.  When mons lay on it to long they get over heated.

Desiree and Prince are going to have pups around Oct 2nd and they would be available 1st week in December if everything works out as it should.