Skip to main content

Storm and Surrey Litter – Week Five

Our big adventure outside!


“The Extraction”

It began as a pleasant afternoon outside with Surrey, her puppies and Heidi who was out for a little fresh air herself. It was the puppies’ first time out and they did not disappoint. Some litters are a little tentative during their inaugural outing. Many puppies will stand there and tremble for several moments while they take in the vastness of a new universe outside their whelping box. Not this crowd. They embraced it as though they’d been playing outside their entire lives! They chased their mom, chased us, climbed over top of us and played in our laps. The mood was very relaxed and we even lay out on some blankets while the puppies carried on. Suddenly it happened without warning. We did not have a protocol in place to rescue a puppy that has crawled up inside the back of one’s shirt. Miss Shimmer kept her cool and waited patiently for the extraction to be undertaken and fortunately we did not have to call the fire department for this one.

The dynamic in the whelping box is also changing. The puppies are spending much more time awake interacting with each other. Something we’ve rarely witnessed with other moms is that Surrey would sit outside the opening of the whelping box for long periods of time just watching her kids at play. She typically sleeps down the hall or on the cool tile floor in the kitchen, but frequently makes her way inside to clean and check up on her brood or provide a snack to supplement the three meals of gruel they are getting daily. Admittedly Surrey does abscond with some of the puppies’ toys to cuddle with herself, but she is being a terrific, loving mom.

The gang was very well-behaved as they received visitors over the weekend. Everyone got a major dose of cuddling while some of their guests seemed to work through a mental checklist of every puppy to hold so no one would be left out. They doled out licks and kisses, nibbled on watches and lapped up all of the attention they were getting. It’s a good thing that the puppies only need to take short naps to get recharged for each new group of visitors so they didn’t miss out on too much loving. Of course the moms made sure they got lots of attention of their own. After all, that’s what Goldens spend their lives in pursuit of.

That’s it for now, but be sure to join us next week for another regal installment of “Puppy Tales”.
Click to play this Smilebox slideshow

Labels

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

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...
2 comments
Read more

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...
Post a Comment
Read more

Ruly & Tulip Litter -Week 3

Three Weeks of Puppy Love: Tulip's Little Ones Are Growing Fast! Our "Spanish" Halloween litter is now 3 weeks old! As they enter their 4th week, we're seeing even more changes. The puppies are much steadier on their four paws and are actively walking around, as you can observe on our 24/7 camera. Mom Tulip continues to provide nourishment every few hours. Tomorrow, we'll introduce the puppies to their first solid food - a mix of pure turkey, ground bone, organ and muscle meat, along with goat's milk. This will be a communal feeding, and while the puppies may not know exactly what to do at first, they quickly devour the meal once they've had a taste. We'll start with one feeding per day and gradually increase to three times daily over the next few days. They'll continue on this three-times-a-day schedule until around 6 months of age, when we'll transition to twice-daily feedings. Mr. Broomstick cuddling with momma❤️ In other updates, the puppie...
1 comment
Read more