Archive for the ‘whelping’ Category
Video of Angel whelping her pups
About 15 minutes after Angel’s arrival in our home, she began to deliver her puppies. This was not exactly our plan, but nature had a different agenda. Here is a short video of the whelping scene. For a few short hours on Sunday, we had – gasp – twenty dogs in our home: Chloe and 5 of her pups were adopted out that day, but Angel arrived early and gave birth to 9 puppies, plus our 4 dogs!
Watch this video on YouTube.
What You Need for a Mama Dog
Planning on fostering a pregnant Mama dog? Here’s a list of what you might need:
* A few good resources on how to whelp puppies.
* A secluded room away from family commotion and other animals.
* A door that closes and nothing in it that you would mind getting ruined – including the door and walls.
* A floor that is easily cleaned with a bleach solution.
* A space heater that you can leave on all day and all night without fear of fires. Not one of those kinds that blows hot air. We have an oil one. You could also use a heat lamp. You need to keep the room at 85 degrees Fahrenheit for the first two weeks of the pups’ lives. They can’t control their own body temperature on their own until 4 weeks of age.
* An area for whelping, nursing, and eating, and a space far enough away from those for elimination (for those stray Mamas who weren’t house trained.)
* A plastic or wood “box” with sides high enough so little young pups can’t crawl out but older, bigger ones can. We use a small turtle sandbox – it is perfect. I’ve also heard of people using plastic swimming pools. With Bella I build a box that was too big and she hated it. Never used it.
(more…)
Birth Day for Mama Annie
Another outside day for Annie, this time helping Mike burn the brush pile. He said she was chasing the embers, leaping into the sky. Then she settled down with a stick and chewed and chewed. At around 6pm he went down to let her out and came back up saying, “I’ll try again later, she didn’t want to go out” and I knew without a doubt that she was going to whelp her pups tonight. She has NEVER EVER not wanted to get out of the room that we’ve reserved for her. Ever. So, I was right and when I checked her at 7pm one little white and tan pup had been born.
Annie was clearly not thrilled with my presence so I’ve left her alone for most of the night. I check in and actually got to see one of the pups born, but it isn’t like the first time with Bella who clearly wanted me involved and actually waited until I was free, after putting the baby down for the afternoon nap, to find me and tell me she was whelping. That was fun. But this is fine too. Much less work for me!
I just now went in and gave her some water and food. She seemed thankful. My current concern is: How am I going to get those wet towels into the wash?? She decided to have the pups in the small crate and I am not going to put my hand in there to fish her and the pups out. She and I are not that close. I figure, she’ll have to get up eventually, then I’ll do it.
