Skip to main content

Mango and Steele’s Litter – Week Five

Mr. Tangerine
This week, the puppies participated in career day. That’s where they try their hand at a variety of occupations and pastimes. These included rock climbing, landscaping which involved chewing on blades of grass, mining which involved digging holes, forestry which involved chewing on pieces of bark and twigs, track & field which involved running and jumping, ball playing and finally group wrestling. At this time, there were clearly no takers for management positions.

While the puppies’ play is becoming a bit more coordinated and adult-like, they’re still just kids at heart. Many have discovered an equine style of movement whereby they buck like broncos as they catapult themselves forward off their hind legs toward their target, namely another puppy or ourselves. Others will inexplicably run around in circles culminating in a toppling over.

Miss Kiwi and Miss Cranberry
This is the beginning of the most influential socialization period for the puppies. They wag their tails to us and to each other. The puppies are entertaining some of their future forever family visitors and they’re making friends with some of the rest of the pack. It seems that our girl Bailey is as enamoured with the puppies as our Sierra – she seems to be dreaming of the day when she’ll have a little brood of her own. Mother Mango is quite willing to share her own puppies with the pack and is still doing double duty by big-heartedly nursing Maddie’s litter on occasion. The puppies have transitioned to a more solid food, so mom’s got lots to go around.

In the meantime, this happy-go-lucky bunch is taking each day as it comes - the feasts, the exploration, the playtime, the visitors, the cuddles and naptime. It doesn’t get much better than this!

That’s it for now, but be sure to join us next week for another entrancing installment of “Puppy Tales”.



Click to play this Smilebox slideshow


Popular posts from this blog

Ruly and Tulip Litter - Week 1

Ruly and Tulip Litter - 1 Week Old What a week it's been! The Tulip puppies continue to thrive, gaining weight steadily and remaining fairly quiet. Tulip dotes on her family, rarely straying far from the whelping box. As you can see on the 24/7 camera, she is starting to spend a bit more time outside the box, but she consistently checks on her babies. Tulip currently eats around 4 pounds of food per day, along with calcium and pre-probiotics supplements. As her pups grow, her daily food intake will be gradually increased, reaching 5 - 6 pounds per day by the time the pups are about 7 weeks old. This increased caloric intake is necessary to meet the energy demands of milk production and to maintain Tulip's own body condition. Tulip still believes an outdoor den would be best for her pups, so we are monitoring her closely when she ventures out. The whelping box is lined with padded bedding and clean, white bleached towels on the bottom. The white towels allow us to quickly spot a...

Ruly & Tulip Litter - Week 2

Many viewers of the 24/7 puppy camera have raised questions, such as what are the pipes running alongside the whelping box. These are called "pig rails" and they are designed to protect the puppies from their mother accidentally lying on them, ensuring the puppies' safety.  Since the puppies are unable to regulate their own body temperature, we use a heat lamp over the whelping box to keep them warm when Tulip is outside the box. However, we turn the heat lamp off when she is nursing the puppies. By 3 to 4 weeks of age, the puppies can regulate their temperature, which should then be in the normal range of 100.5°F to 102.5°F (38°C to 39.3°C). The most significant event this week is that the puppies' eyes have opened. Mr. Devil's eyes (the one with the red collar) were the first to open. Each puppy followed and within 48 hours they had all opened.  The puppies are now weighing almost 3 lbs, and Tulip provides them nourishment at least every 2 hours, often throughou...

Ruly and Tulip Litter - 7 Weeks Old

Tulip’s Puppies Celebrate Their 7-Week Milestone! Another week has flown by, and it's hard to believe these puppies are already 7 weeks old. For the most part, they've been a very quiet litter. Don't get me wrong, they have their moments of boundless energy, running around in circles like little tornadoes. But compared to some of my more "vocal" litters at this age, these pups have been relatively calm. They love attention and cuddles, which is a delight for us humans. The big adventure this week was the trip to the vet for their health checkups. I'm happy to report they received a clean bill of health and were a big hit at the clinic. However, I'm always on guard at the veterinary hospital, as that's where sick dogs go. So we quickly wheeled the crates into the exam room on a trolley, making sure to keep all other dogs and people clear of my pups. This time of year, the threats of kennel cough and parvo are ever-present. The puppies weren't sure a...