Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Cavoodle Puppy owners Report week of 28th April 2010
I am not sure what time I will have between now and Monday as there is loads on for us so here is this weeks report a tad early and I will try and get some photos on over the weekend but they are all doing well.
25th this was the first day we measured a reduction in their weight gains as poor little Honey has been copping a caning with their sharp little needle teeth so she is spending less and less time in the pen with them and one couldn’t blame her one little bit so we gave them a half teaspoon each of farax mixed with puppy formula and they slept for much of the day with full little tummies.
26th they had short periods of hectic playing and barking at each other chewing of ears, squealing and generally getting tired before lapsing back into sleep absolutely fagged out. Rusty was trying to dominate the others but the girls Jamima and Pauline, now Shelley then ganged up on rusty barking and standing off walking on all fours before back legs would slip out from under on the slippery paper and they just collapsed.
27/4/10 I have just been watching Rusty dreaming, laying on his side and it was as if he was running fast whilst Jamima was laying flat out on her back with her side cuddled into Jane, and Shelley was laying on top with her with head over Jamima’s neck. Talk about time wasters. They play hard and sleep hard, when they play Rusty tries to throw his weight about and bites their ears taking on 2 or 3 girls at once or maybe they take him on and they sink their teeth into any appendage that they can. This morning he was biting one’s ears one was sinking teeth into his tail and then into another appendage, That action brought his full attention with pain attached to full concentration on the problem seems the girls have now all found his weak spot and he squeals so loud and shrill one just knows what’s happened without even looking they all are so much fun and what time wasters they are! Interesting at this age they usually sleep in the closest end and when they wake up they need to go so they go down the other end. They have already worked out laying in wet paper isn’t the most pleasant so they keep that end clean. When I feel Honey’s udder full even if she’s not over anxious I throw her in with them and she empties ASAP and out like a flash then today Wed. I put Farax sloppy mix in the outside ant proof moat around their dish and after getting a taste for it last night they were into it and making a fair fist of it too, so it won’t be long before they are eating off a dish and I can leave off hand feeding as it’s time consuming and they will just eat till they are full so why try and oversee them eating when it isn’t necessary.
28/4/10 For a few days Honey has been gradually weaning the pups probably necessitated by the pain of those needle sharp teeth, it is common for pups to go backward for a while during this change over period from Mum feeding them to solid foods we decided to get good scales and track them on a daily exercise as few breeders would recognise the exact day they needed extra feed and to be able to pick it exactly. When they suddenly had a day where 3 had 0 weight change and one had just 10 grams gain we knew this was the day to really get serious and take them into the transition put the protocol into place and implement it last night and presto they responded immediately and today had an average weight gain of 45 grams which is spot on average we wanted. It also gave them a boost in energy so the girls would get what Mum had before she jumped out and then we had by this afternoon reached the point where they were lapping and eating their solids on their own and enjoying it.
This meant they could top up after mum to finish with their tummies full then play hard for a while till they are exhausted and fall asleep and sleep longer, good stuff that puts us back right on track again.
They are getting so cute and cunning, they are responding well to our human handling with no fear as every contact with humans is a pleasant one with cuddles, food and play as we get them looking forward to every time we put our hands in for whatever it is from changing paper and having a little play to picking them out for personal time 1 on 1 playing or food etc. Whilst they are all together they won’t be bonding with us so much, only as humans but when you get them home they will have you on their own so they will bond with you quickly as they don’t have their siblings and later I will share our strategy that makes that change much less stressful for them and only take a very short time to get over it as you become their new mother and a tight bond is established. This is possibly one of the most important aspects of giving puppies a really good smooth and enjoyable transition.
Will take more photos at the weekend and post them then so you can see the growth and there is some when their last photos were taken their weight was on average 5.6 times their birth weight and tonight it is 6.4 times and this is their slowest growth period in the midst of the change over. I think this is all for now will bring you up to date further when I post the photos.
Regards
Brian
No comments:
Post a Comment