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SoftMaple N HunterBay
Fall Litter

Born 11/8/2004 (3 liver girls, 2 black girls and 4 black boys) out of CH SoftMaple's O'Dark Thirty MH WCX CD CGC TT HOF CR-536G27M-T OFA cardiac, CERF and SoftMaple N HunterBay's Poetic Justice CGC, PennHip, CR-CA158/21F/C-NOPI, CERF 2004



Week Four (Days 22-28)
DEVELOPMENT OF THE PUPPIES

+ Begin to eat food
+ Begin to bark, wag tails, bite, paw, bare teeth, growl and chase
+ Use legs well
+ Tire easily
+ Depth perception starts

Day 22
11/30

We introduced puppy mash today


At firs the pups did not know what to do, so they walked in it! Then licked it off each other.

Day 23
12/1/2004


The pups were wormed again this morning, and any tight collars were replaced. Yesterday, the pups got 2 mush meals and did very well. This morning they rushed right in, and there wasn't nearly as much mess for Bailey to clean off them :-)


The puppy mush I used today is one part condensed milk, some plain yogurt, a scoop of digestive enzymes, and gerber rice baby cereal. There are a lot of different concoctions you can do. If the pups aren't getting a lot of milk from the mom, I would use a commercial milk replacer like First Born or Espilac.


Every litter is different. There is no golden day to start to supplement the pups. You have to go by how the mom is doing with feeding them. How many pups there are, and how far along they are in development. Sometime in week four is usually when you start introducing foods to the pups. I have had small litters where they are so well fed by the mom, that they aren't interested in the puppy slop. Other litters, where there is a lot of competition for mom's milk, they tend to jump right into early weaning. Bailey is doing a great job feeding the gang, but I don't want to put too much strain on her system. Some bitches become very drained with a litter.

Day 24
12/2/2004


Early morning pictures. I heard a loud ruckus this morning and went down to find Pink Collar black girl out of the box.
So I decided to fee them, she must have been looking for food!



Day 25
12/3/2004
I'll try to get some pictures of the individual pups. Starting with the boys.

Blue boy


Green boy


Red boy


Yellow boy


Don't take my picture!

Day 26
12/4/2004



Pink Girl


Yellow Girl

Today I heard yapping in the puppy room, and figured someone was out of the whelping box and couldn't get back in.... well I was wrong. Everyone was out of the whelping box, and all over the puppy room! So down went the papers, out came the toys.


Day 27
12/5/2004


Blue Girl


Green Girl


Pink Girl


Day 28
12/6/2004


Real early morning pictures
The pups were making a lot of racket about 4:00am, so I made up breakfast early


Bailey goes in and helps clean up second breakfast at about 8:00 am

The pups eat about 4 meals a day, in addition to what they get from Bailey. The meals they got this morning were part puppy food ground up with canned milk, digestive enzymes and yogurt. Some meals are fed in the whelping box, and some outside the whelping box, in the puppy room. Gradually, we will feed the pups on different surfaces. This is a good way to introduce them to new textures in a positive way. (food is always positive to a puppy!)


On to Week Five!





SoftMaple Curly Coated Retrievers
Mark and Cathy Lewandowski
8282 Soft Maple Road
Croghan New York 13327

Information on our next litter:


SoftMaple Gunflint 2005 Winter litter
SoftMaple Gunflint's Beauty CR-715G28F-NOPI, CR-EL131F28-NOPI, CR-CA157/28F/P-NOPI and CH Boyerie Dese Maestro Music Please CR-CA148/24M/C-PI-ECHO CR-696G24M-PI CR-750
Puppies due in January

softmaple@curlycoat.org