Puppy Report 1/1/12

Puppy Report 1-1-12

Well this week has seen some major developments in our pups and I’m sure you will see changes.

They are now 4 ½ weeks coming up 5 and Honey usually starts weaning them at about 5 weeks but this time she started yesterday and today I could tell on the scales that their growth had started to slow down as she isn’t eating as much and her milk supply is slowing down.  We are keeping her food up and I now have to kid her to stay in the box and give them a drink.  To do this I have started supplementing today and gave them some special low lactose milk specially for dogs (most dogs have difficulty handling the lactose in milk) so we have to get special stuff (dear as poison but good stuff) and then tonight I got 3 to 4 teaspoons of Farax and milk into them by spoon.

They are still only little even though they are much bigger than last week and hopefully they will associate the smell with something nice so when they smell it in their feeding dish they will start lapping naturally and then it reverts to just having to make it up and poor it into the dishes and watch, a load better than spooning it into them.

Their eyes are now wide open and they are seeing things and their ears are working.  Little bxzyc??!! Blankety!!! blanks can hear when we walk into the room and they already know the sound their mum makes and they are all standing up at the corner of their box waiting for her.  When I walk in and they are asleep they just lay there but with eyes wide open looking to see if I have anything for them, then they are up and excited to have some attention and a change of entertainment.

They have been putting on weight well growing by the day and still sleeping a lot but awake much more than before and this will increase in the coming weeks.  What we have to realize is that in their terms they are now equal to a human baby 6 months old so things that happen as they develop are much the same as our babies but 7 times faster and a dog that lives to 14 years is equal to a 98 year old human.

Weekly their colours are changing gradually becoming closer to each other but still small differences as you will see in the photos and their teeth and claws are like needles.  Poor Honeys tummy has been scratched to pieces so it is no wonder she has had enough.

Where last week they were standing on all fours now they are walking on all fours and getting quite mobile, particularly when Honey gets in the box they still like the milk bar.  After I fed them tonight I gave honey the job of checking doing their ablutions for them and cleaning up around their mouths all the Farax they had there then threw her in the box to clean up the rest of the Farax and milk I’d prepared and give them a drink at the same time to make sure they were as full as possible and it must be a comfort to them and mum too.

Here are this weeks photos.


First a short video.  I am experimenting with this gear and sorry for the quality as I had to reduce the speed to get any time on the thing .

If you like to click on the sideways arrows in the right hand corner the video goes to full screed and when finished click escape and it shrinks right back.

Yes and don't forget to turn on the sound as you can hear some of their first barks and growls

This is our first little girl.  You can start to see the framing I was talking about around their eyes, this is a distinct feature of our combination.  Colours are somewhere near accurate. She is doing well and continues to put on weight and today weighs 928 gms.

And here she is side on

Now for the second born, she's a bit lighter colour but could darken later and she weighs 1073 gms

Here there is a bit of colour wash and they had all been asleep and I woke them up for photo's so they weren't exactly the most cooperative and she just wanted to shit her eyes

Number 3 is the heaviest and got off to a flying start this is a closer to colour than the side view I think because the amount of Julia's jumper is washing into the side shots  Again the eye framing is evident and you may note that they are all clear where as they were milky at first but they are all working well and so is their ears

As I said above she is the heaviest weighing in at 1211 gms

This little pet is the darkest and has a real fat tummy, a bit more nuggety, plain but awfully cute  Here you can see how the same coloured fur around their eyes still frames them as it lays in a different direction and even though it is the same colour it is still a stand out special feature

She just didn't want to be bothered just let me go back to sleep  again you can still see the clarity in her eyes now evident

Well that's it for another week and in signing off I want to wish you all a very good, healthy and prosperous 2012 and I look forward to meeting some of you fairly soon

All the very best from Julia and I.