Storm and Sierra Litter – Week Two

“The Double Agent”

It’s been two weeks and Sierra hasn’t suspected a thing. We know that she gave birth to five puppies, but the count in her whelping box often fluctuates between five and seven. One of the regular visitors is Bailey’s Miss Saffron who does double duty in both boxes. This is helping to ensure that all puppies from both litters get equal access to the milk bar because it can get a little crowded there. Perhaps Sierra’s not very good at math, but it could also be that she’s just got a heart of Gold(en) and is happy to be their Godmother.

It’s exciting for us when the puppies’ eyes open. 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 puppies are also born functionally deaf since their ear canals are closed. While their ear canals begin to open at around the same time, the ears are much more fully formed than the eyes and their hearing will be quite acute within a week or so.

Many of the puppies’ critical organs including their brain are not fully formed and they will spend several weeks developing rapidly. Since the gestation period in dogs is short (63 days), the tradeoff is that puppies are quite helpless at birth. Biologists refer to species that produce immature dependent offspring as altricial, which means “to nurse, to rear or to nourish”. It refers to the need for the young of these species to be fed and taken care of for a long period of time. Within their first two weeks, these plump little princes and the princess crushed not only the 2 lb. barrier, but the 3 lb. barrier and are well on their way to the 4 lb. mark. We have a suspicion that someone’s been sneaking them Timbits, but of course they’re getting milk instead of coffee.

Despite their girth and zero stress lifestyle, the puppies are getting their share of exercise. Since we’ve added some stuffed animals to the whelping box, it forces the little ones to climb over the obstacles to reach their target (usually Sierra’s milk bar or a sibling to sleep on) thereby building muscle mass. As well, when they lie sleeping, they are constantly twitching – a state known as “activated sleep”. These involuntary actions help strengthen their leg muscles. This bunch will be on the dance floor before long.

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