Fall 2001 litter
Fall 2001 litter
+ Begin to eat food
+ Begin to bark, wag tails, bite, paw, bare teeth, growl and chase
+ Use legs well
+ Tire easily
+ Depth perception starts
10/31/2001: Weaning generally begins between three and four weeks of age, depending on the mother and how the pups' teeth are coming in. Mom will usually decide she
doesn't like being with those pups as much as before and will only let them nurse for a very short time. Those teeth hurt. I like to let the mom set the time of actual weaning, but supplemental feeding starts now. Sometimes a mom will signal its time for the pups to try eating by regurgitating her own food up for the. Many times puppies will begin to experiment with their
mother's food when she is fed. If a breeder/owner observes this, this is one signal to start getting serious about teaching the puppies to eat out of a pan. There are
many dog people who simply allow the pups to learn through observing their mother and experimenting on their own how to eat. Unfortunately, there are two major
objections to this method. Some dams will snarl and snap at the pups for taking, or attempting to take, her food. This does not help the learning process. The other
objection is that the food the adult dam is eating is not the food that will satisfy the nutritional needs of the puppies. The digestive system of puppies is simply not
ready for this quantum leap. The easy way is not always the right way. In this case, it could lead to malnourished and underdeveloped pups.
There are many formulas for making puppy mush. Some mix Gerber's rice cereal with evaporated milk. Any of the milk replacers mixed with baby cereal. (Esbilac,
FirstBorn, Nutrience. Later softend puppy food and ground meat will be added.
Never use regular cow's milk for the pups. Puppies can't digest cow's milk and will get the runs. If you are lucky enough to have it available, you can use goat's milk.
It's even better than canned. Make sure you are using regular evaporated milk (like Carnation or Pet) and not condensed milk (like Eagle Brand Condensed Milk).
The first feedings are very messy! The pups aren't sure what to do, so many walk through the mush. I use a puppy pan called a flying saucer. It has a raised center,
to keep the pups from laying in the food. You can do the same thing using a large flat pan, and turn a bowl upsideown in the center. It keeps the food in a circular
troth. The pups then lick the food off themselves and each other. Gabby then goes in and cleans up the mess!
The pups are just starting to play with each other. They are still uncoordinated, and when they try to pounce on each other, often times they loose balance and go tumbling away. Some make puppy growling sounds, bark and bite at each others ears. This interaction is very important for them to learn acceptable canine behavior, and bite inhibition. Later Gabby will also teach them what is acceptable play, and what is not. The pups have several kinds of toys in the whelping box. Fleece squeaky toys, toys with rattles, bells hard rubber toys, and even one of Gabby's rawhide chews. The pups check out these items, but as of yet haven't played with them. Several times a day, each pup is handled, stroked and talked to. The pups are briefly set on the floor outside the whelping box, then returned to mom. Hopefully this shows them that every stressful stimuli ends, and they have the comfort of mom and littermates. (maybe this will help it not be as frightening for the first guy that makes it out of the box!)
| Liver Boys | Black Boys | Liver Girls | Black Girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| Crawled around crying and sniffing. tried to stay near littermate |
walked around crying and sniffing came over to me and laid down |
most adventurous of liver girls | crawled around crying and sniffing made it most of the way to me, then laid down. |
| most adventurous of liver boys | most adventurous of black boys | Peed, sniffed around a bit, cried a few times then laid down |
Stuck close to littermate did not cry |
| stood up, stretched forward and sniffed then tried to be near littermate |
|||
| most adventurous of black girls. also most adventurouse of the group today. |
11/4/2001:
To elaborate on what the puppies are eating, and more pictures of the pups!
| Liver girl First pup out of the box 8:00am when put back in, she got out again within minutes |
| Liver Boys | Black Boys | Liver Girls | Black Girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| Out of the box by noon | Out of the box by noon | First out of the box | Yellow Collar |
| Out of the box by noon | Out of the boxby noon | Yellow Collar | White Collar |
| Out of the box by noon | |||
| Out of the box by noon |
Those First Weeks at SoftMaple & The Bio Sensor method of early puppy stimulation
Back to first page of puppy diary
Your Curlies General Health (ears/eyes/teeth,etc)
Puppies born 10/8/2001 ~ 10/9/2001
4 black girls, 3 liver girls, 2 black boys, 2 liver boys.
