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Pepper, Day 57 (pre-parturition)

Miss Pepper with one week to go 😉 We are heading into the home stretch with our precious Pepper as she continues to get bigger with each passing day. She is slowing down and prefers the cool tile floor to lay on. Despite the loss of her girlish figure, she can still jump onto the sofa to demand cuddles and belly rubs. She measures 36 inches or 91 cm, so she has quite a bit of extra weight to carry around! With just a few more days left to go, the whelping area has been prepared for the big event. She has her meals three times daily and seemingly has an internal alarm clock because within a minute of our usual feeding times she barks to alert us “it’s time”. We will begin to monitor her temperature twice daily as any significant drop would signal the onset of labour.  At this point the fetuses are fully developed and can be born safely. The puppies have basically finished their development and are just growing bigger at this point. Puppies are born without the ability to see and th...

Pepper, Day 56 days (pre-parturition)

Our cuddly Pepper hasn’t skipped a beat. She continues to happily hang out with the pack and enjoys cooling off indoors in the air conditioning. She has however excavated a lovely den in the backyard for her pups. Since she’s due next week, we will introduce Pepper to a lovely clean warm environment known as “the whelping box” for her to house her puppies in.  Pepper is loving her three meals a day. Usually a very slow eater, she now devours her meals which consists of a nutritious and “unprocessed” raw meal of veggies, meat/bone, raw eggs, beef liver, pre and probiotics and vitamins.   Today she is enjoying a spa day with lots of pampering in preparation for the big event.  National Geographic image of a Golden Retriever puppy fetus At this stage, the puppies have a full coat of hair and can be felt moving around in her tummy which measures 33 inches or 88.8 cm. The coat is one of the last organs to develop along with the intestinal tract. The majority of a pu...