It's been a busy week for the litter, and we are delighted with the way the pups are progressing.
If Kassi's pregnancy had gone full term they would only be three weeks old, but as they were born early they will be 4 weeks on Thursday ( 11th).
There are a number of milestones in a litter's development that we look out for; double their birth weight by the time they're a week old (they were a few days late getting there), tripling their birth weight by the time they're 2 weeks old (check), eyes open by 2 weeks (check) and teeth starting to show by 3 weeks (check) - oh, and break the magic 1 kilogram mark (check).
The next step in their development is to introduce them to solid food. This would normally occur around 4 weeks of age, however we though we would start them off a little sooner, which we did on Saturday 6th, at 22 days of age. They certainly didn't complain!
With previous litters meal times have tended to be a bit chaotic (pups walking through food bowls, going to a sibling's bowl, getting distracted, etc.) so I hatched a cunning plan utilising some spare timber to divide the whelping box into four individual sections. It worked a treat and the pups tucked into their first taste of solid food (Natural Instinct chicken weaning paste).
Things took a turn for the worse on Sunday however when Rachel (to be known as Nolla) decided that she wanted to try one of her brother's food and clambered over the dividers - oh well, it worked for a while.
I have spent much of today getting the puppy pen ready for their next experience when they leave the whelping box for the first time and join us, and the other dogs, downstairs.
This necessitated moving furniture around in our lounge, a deep clean of the carpet and hard surfaces (we do like Anigene), a thorough disinfecting of the various panels and trays of the puppy pen, and the assembly of the pen.
A couple of cameras will be set up to monitor and share the pups' time in the pen (though they will be returning to the whelping box for the next few nights). One of the cameras is for our own use, the other for others to view via by Facebook page (add me as a friend if we are not already connected).
The plan was for the pups to join us today but time has passed by to quickly so their horizons will be broadened tomorrow (April 10th).
In the meantime I need to sort out the whelping box as a couple of the pups are determined to climb out, it's non-stop here at Lumikoira.
Lappy days, and thanks for reading.
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