Storm & Hannah Litter – Week Two

I can see the world now!

“Peekaboo”

The big news this week is that the puppies have opened their eyes. At this stage, they can only differentiate between light and dark, but the haze will clear up very quickly over the next week or so as they begin to experience normal sight. They can hear quite well as soon as their ears have opened. Now that they’re being so well fed with the all-day buffet that Hannah has provided, they’re a little quieter at night. That, of course was one of the conditions we gave Hannah in allowing her to remain in the bedroom.

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!

Hannah is an extremely dedicated mom and seldom leaves her puppies day or night; their plump, round bodies are a testament to that. Since their body temperatures will not have been regulated until after week three, the little gang relies on mom and each other for warmth. We use a heat lamp for good measure when mom’s on her break. As they lie there asleep, the puppies are constantly twitching. These involuntary actions, referred to as “activated sleep”, help strengthen their leg muscles allowing them to stagger along on all fours like imbibing sailors on shore leave.

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