Hugo & Paige Litter – Week Three

Hello world!

“Creature Comforts”

Paige and her brood have been relocated to the living room which is a pretty regal deal for mom. She’s got both a sofa and a love seat to stretch out on, not to mention some carpeting and some sections of cool wood flooring for lounging. There’s also a walkout to the backyard for those peaceful Zen moments or for chasing chipmunks. Unlike many other moms in this situation, Paige didn’t bat an eye about being transplanted - she knew this was a good deal.

In order to provide her pups with their sustenance, along with her regular meals, Paige is getting a super-charged smoothie consisting of pro-biotic yogurt, pre and probiotics, calcium citrate, vitamin C, colostrum and bio-active proteins to help kick-start her puppies’ immune systems.

Now that their vision is established beyond simply being able to detect light, dark and movement, the puppies are becoming increasingly curious about their surroundings and each other. They are beginning to get acquainted with their littermates and can often be seen standing in a group gently colliding or rubbing their noses and heads against one another whether awake or asleep. This is the beginning of a key period for the puppies as they are developing rudimentary social skills. They are testing each other’s limits and learning the difference between hard and soft biting and they also take turns sleeping at the top and bottom of the sibling pile. When mom is on her break, the kids pine to be together in their furry little huddle.

In order to accommodate the puppies’ rapid growth, we’ve raised the pig rails in their box up a notch. These are rails around the inside of the whelping box that are there to help prevent mom from accidentally squishing one of her kids. At some point during the coming week, the rails can safely be removed altogether. Now that the puppies are getting adept at staggering around, an extension will be added to the box soon which will give the gang lots more room to play in. That’s when the real fun begins!

That’s it for now but be sure to join us next week for another nail-biting instalment of “Puppy Tales”.