The second week was quite a lot like the first week. They were characterized by looking out for the health and welfare of Maya and her 13 puppies, specifically keeping them warm and isolated, watching for any signs of infections or a failure to thrive, and actively working to see Maya and all puppies gain weight, get great nutrition, and have ample love and stimulation. Weighing, bottle feeding, and ENS/ESI are standardly finished off with petting and snuggling the puppies as long as they receive it and don’t get overstimulated or upset by it.
Stimulation
Maya was spending probably 22+ hours a day in the whelping box during week 1. During the second week, I started doing change ups in the whelping box, just for novelty and stimulation for the puppies. But when I put a rubber ball in the box and Maya snapped it up and chewed on it while she nursed the puppies, I realized that she could really use some boredom busters while she was spending so much time there. Some days I played music. Some days I'd put a different clean toy in. It was good for the puppies and good for Maya. Some other things I did for the puppies were just simple change ups, maybe move the location of the heating pad, or add a little bump or ledge to navigate to the flooring. The idea is simply to get brain waves moving, start connecting synapses, and start the beginnings of problem solving. They all did great. Sometimes a puppy would whine, but Maya would rarely intervene, letting them figure out how to navigate and conquer the mini challenge.
Weights
Day 10: We aim for puppies to double their birthweight by 10 days. It’s harder for a very large litter to accomplish this, but 9 of 13 puppies had doubled their weight by day 10 this time & all had doubled their weight by day 12. I’m still bottle feeding daily to supplement Maya, and the puppies are still weighed daily. All puppies at 14 days old weigh between 2 pounds 4 ounces and 2 pounds 6 1/2 ounces. There is usually up to a 25% spread in our litter weights but today’s range is the tightest. In nature it’s unlikely that Maya would have been able to provide enough milk for all 13, and the strongest would have commandeered the most resources, boxing out the weakest. But in this controlled environment, all puppies are maintaining a similar size and weight while nursing, and are growing, strong and healthy.
Grooming
In order to minimize Maya’s belly getting scratched badly and also to get puppies used to handling and grooming, the puppies nails are groomed once or twice a week. The first week their nails were pretty soft & were trimmed with clippers. The second week, their nails had grown and hardened so much that after being clipped, the edges were still very sharp. So I dremmelled their front claws to soften the impact on Maya. In the long run, I believe introducing them to the vibration of the dremmel now will likely make it far more accepted later.
ENS & ESI
ENS & ESI will continue for a few more days. It’s really fun to see most of the puppies relax more during the ENS exercises and learn to go with the flow! With Early Scent Introduction, one of our female puppies shows a particular interest in pursuing scents, so if any of you who reserved a female or no gender preference from this litter have any interest in hunting, search and rescue, or any other hobby, interest or pursuit where scent work is a benefit, please let me know so I can keep that in mind.
Introductions
One day, we had Maya nurse the puppies in a wire exercise pen placed in the boys room for a change of scent and activity. We allowed our 10 month and 13 month other dogs in to see the puppies from outside the pen; and they were so curious. When a puppy cried, Rex backed away and watched the pen full of puppies from afar. Gloria kept going to different areas around the perimeter of the pen, sniffing the puppies and vocalizing to them. When Gloria left the puppy room, my husband said that Gloria looked vibrantly happy, her whole face shining with joy. She had waited a long time for that moment. Most days she'll wait at the gate and vocalize, wanting to see the puppies. We've been giving puppy visits between the dogs on most days, for just a few minutes at a time.
Eyes and Ears
The puppies eyes are just cracking open and will open more this week. It's really fun to see them act differently as they begin taking things in visually. The past 24 hours I've seen their behavior change in their interactions. Instead of just glomming together for warmth and comfort, I've seen them purposely brush up against each other more, some of them staring at each other, licking each other when they are close together. Eyes and Ears should start really going live soon, and that will bring new action and activity as their world changes and they begin to see better and hear things.
Potty
The puppies will likely start eliminating on their own soon. A couple of puppies are already demonstrating this. Puppies getting to start eliminating with zero control over it earns them a ticket out of our room! We'll be moving them into the Living Room at some point this week. As their eyes and ears open too, it’s the perfect time to move them out into the main living area so they can get used to the normal sounds and commotion of house life.
Anticipated for the upcoming week:
- Eyes and ears open
- Moving to the main living area
- Growing & developing leaps and bounds.
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