Storm and Surrey Litter – Week Two

Our eyes have opened!

“The Skating Rink”

Miss Surrey is a lady who knows what she wants. And what she wants at this stage of the game is to be comfortable. The whelping box is lined with soft pads and layered with plush towels to provide comfort for Surrey and her brood. This however is not to Surrey’s liking. Surrey prefers to push all the towels away into a heap so that she can lie on the smooth, cool vinyl base of the whelping box. A challenge arises here in that the fat pack (so named because they’ve managed to billow out quite nicely), must now skate along this slippery surface in order to reach mom for a snack. Since they have no traction, once they’re poised at the milk bar, the puppies virtually have to run on the spot in order to push up against mom and enjoy their meals. Surrey’s a smart girl so she may be counting on her pups getting some exercise in during their meal breaks to help them maintain their figures.

To add to the confusion, Surrey now likes to lie on her back while she sleeps. The puppies initially found this quite confusing as all of the equipment they’d been using was no longer in a familiar place. This caused them to whimper a great deal so until they got the hang of it, we had to line them up along Surrey’s midsection and even deposit one or two on top of her belly. The ever-hungry Miss Blossom and Mr. Cardinal don’t like to be kept waiting and squeak the loudest. Since mom has led by example, now many of the puppies sleep on their backs.

One of the most exciting events for us is when the puppies’ eyes open. Many of their critical organs including their brain are not fully formed and they will spend several weeks developing rapidly. The same is true of the eyes. Puppies are born with their eyelids tightly shut because the eye itself is still developing and is extremely fragile. The closed eyelids serve as a barrier to protect the eyes from potential damage. Now that their eyes are open, it will take a few weeks before their eyes mature and their eyesight begins to approach normal. The ear canals begin to open at around the same time, but the ears are much more fully formed than the eyes and their hearing will become quite acute within a week or so.

Newborn puppies are unable to regulate their own body temperature and for the first three weeks, their temperature climbs one degree until it reaches the normal range. When mom is on her break, we use a heat lamp to keep everyone warm and cozy, but when mom’s around, they’ll either snuggle up with her or lay intertwined with their siblings. That’s what friends are for.

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