Day 17 has probably been the most intensive that the puppies have experienced so far. The worming process that we started on day 15, has to be continued for three consecutive days, so today is the last of the worming solution required. Another worming session will take place when the puppies are 5 weeks old. We have continued with the weighing process. weighing on alternate days, so that we can see the progress of each individual pup. Any that are showing minimal weight gains, are singled out to be first at the "petrol pumps" when Tilly feeds them!
Probably the most exciting thing so far, has been the pups drinking baby dog milk from a small bowl. This has meant that they have had to learn completely new skills. For a start they are having to either stand or sit whilst feeding, as opposed to lying down and suckling from a teat. They have also had to master the art of licking and swallowing the liquid and using their tongues to direct the food into their mouth. Needless to say the bitches appeared to be better than the dogs at this first attempt. The dogs were content to have the bowl held for them with the minimum of effort on their part! Whereas some of the bitches were stood up and drinking like a pro!
Here's ten bowls of milk lined up ready!
The whole business of feeding from bowls was a little messy and we ended up with lots of milk moustaches and milk beards!
It's now the end of week 3 and we have been feeding the puppies from bowls using a combination of milk and wet puppy food. They are starting to roll the puppy food around in their mouths, but they definitely prefer the milk at this stage. We have progressed from one pup at a time, to feeding four pups in one go. We've found it useful to take a "good" drinker with a "not so good" pup, and hopefully the less experienced one will learn from it's brother or sister!
The pups are growing daily and are becoming healthy chunky pups. We have had loads of visitors this week, and the pups have been handled by many adults and children. We have been lucky enough to find six homes so far for our pups. We are still looking for homes for two bitches and two dogs, but we are happy to wait for the "right" people to come along.
Speak Your Mind