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| Whitney is certainly showing! |
As
we head into the final week of Whitney’s pregnancy, she is certainly continuing
to slow down. Her abdomen measures a whopping 36 inches or 91cm. She is eating
her meals very slowly but still polishing them off. Whitney is now receiving 4
meals daily but we may increase that to 5 or 6 meals daily as we move closer to
her birthing date. The pressure of her growing puppies increases when
she's near to term so she may want smaller more frequent meals.
Whitney has now begun to
nest as all moms-to-be do. In the wild she would have carefully chosen a safe
area in which to dig herself an appropriate den. Without human intervention,
this is where she would have her puppies! But not to worry, she’ll actually have them in
a nice warm and sterile environment known as the whelping box. Over the next
week we will make all the final preparations for the arrival of her puppies.
We
have begun monitoring her temperature twice daily as any significant drop would
signal the onset of labour. At day 59 the puppies can be safely
born but the gestation term is typically 63 days or 9 weeks from ovulation.
It is easy to feel the puppies moving around now as they begin
to grow more rapidly now. We will continue to pamper Whitney as we await the
BIG day!
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| National Geographic image of a Golden Retriever pup fetus. |
Toward the 50th day of gestation, the
fetuses’ skeletons are ossified. At this point, the puppies’
coats of fur are fully developed and they will rapidly gain in size in
preparation for their birth. The
puppies have basically finished their development and are just growing bigger
at this point. Puppies are born without the ability to see and their eyes don’t
open until about 10 days after birth.
Stay tuned ….
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