Frigid Fiesta!
We are fighting the frigid February by thinking HOT HOT HOT !!! Our twelve little “Fiesta’s” have the heat on high and have REALLY grown this first week! They are at least twice as big as they were on their Birth Day because they have eating and sleeping down to perfection!!! Because I nearly LIVE in the whelping box this first week, I regularly rotate the biggest 6 out so that the littlest 6 get a chance to REALLY get a good meal. We use Nutri-Cal, a very high energy paste, every day to help boost their little systems too.
I think we are just beginning to see a hint of eyes starting to come open!! Usually by two weeks they are definitely opening their eyes. Did you know that their eyes are ALWAYS blue when they first come open? They will darken every day and by the time they go home to their new families, they will be mostly dark brown. Their little ears have started to flip down and will open soon as well. They are pretty quiet for the most part except for tiny little whines and whimpers followed by enthusiastic sucking!! Toenails were the focus of the week.!!! On Monday, at four days old, they had their first checkup with the vet and had their dew claws removed which went very well. Did you know that we use veterinary super glue to hold the skin together after they are removed? Really makes scaring less likely. They also had their first toenail trim! It takes quite a little time to trim 4 toenails on the 4 feet of 12 puppies - especially when they are so squirmy!!! I know Momma Mini appreciates the removal of 192 little daggers!!! Check out how fuzzy they are!!! I don't know why this happens, but it always does - their fur gets real fuzzy making it quite difficult to see the ridge especially the crowns (hair colics) that form the ridge. They will be fuzzy for about two weeks and then one day they just AREN'T anymore!! Navels all look good - no 'outeys' I hope.
We have started them on the ‘Super Dog Program” which was developed by the military after years of research to determine what, if anything, will help a dog become a healthier, more intelligent, easy to train, confident and capable canine companion in the future. In short, it requires doing some very simple exercises with each pup from 3 days old until 16 days old. For more information, check out this website:
http://www.breedingbetterdogs.com/achiever.html
Obviously, I have chosen the litter theme!! - The Fiesta Litter!!! We think it is much more fun to talk about the puppies by a name rather than by a number or a color, hence the themes. Understand that this is simply a litter name, you can name your puppy anything you want to later. It will be a few weeks yet before we actually assign the names to each pup because we kind of like to match the right name to the right pup!!! It’s going to take some power play time to decide which puppy fits a name like Nacho, Chalupa, Tortilla, Taco, Burrito …….!!!
We are fighting the frigid February by thinking HOT HOT HOT !!! Our twelve little “Fiesta’s” have the heat on high and have REALLY grown this first week! They are at least twice as big as they were on their Birth Day because they have eating and sleeping down to perfection!!! Because I nearly LIVE in the whelping box this first week, I regularly rotate the biggest 6 out so that the littlest 6 get a chance to REALLY get a good meal. We use Nutri-Cal, a very high energy paste, every day to help boost their little systems too.
I think we are just beginning to see a hint of eyes starting to come open!! Usually by two weeks they are definitely opening their eyes. Did you know that their eyes are ALWAYS blue when they first come open? They will darken every day and by the time they go home to their new families, they will be mostly dark brown. Their little ears have started to flip down and will open soon as well. They are pretty quiet for the most part except for tiny little whines and whimpers followed by enthusiastic sucking!! Toenails were the focus of the week.!!! On Monday, at four days old, they had their first checkup with the vet and had their dew claws removed which went very well. Did you know that we use veterinary super glue to hold the skin together after they are removed? Really makes scaring less likely. They also had their first toenail trim! It takes quite a little time to trim 4 toenails on the 4 feet of 12 puppies - especially when they are so squirmy!!! I know Momma Mini appreciates the removal of 192 little daggers!!! Check out how fuzzy they are!!! I don't know why this happens, but it always does - their fur gets real fuzzy making it quite difficult to see the ridge especially the crowns (hair colics) that form the ridge. They will be fuzzy for about two weeks and then one day they just AREN'T anymore!! Navels all look good - no 'outeys' I hope.
We have started them on the ‘Super Dog Program” which was developed by the military after years of research to determine what, if anything, will help a dog become a healthier, more intelligent, easy to train, confident and capable canine companion in the future. In short, it requires doing some very simple exercises with each pup from 3 days old until 16 days old. For more information, check out this website:
http://www.breedingbetterdogs.com/achiever.html
Obviously, I have chosen the litter theme!! - The Fiesta Litter!!! We think it is much more fun to talk about the puppies by a name rather than by a number or a color, hence the themes. Understand that this is simply a litter name, you can name your puppy anything you want to later. It will be a few weeks yet before we actually assign the names to each pup because we kind of like to match the right name to the right pup!!! It’s going to take some power play time to decide which puppy fits a name like Nacho, Chalupa, Tortilla, Taco, Burrito …….!!!