Oh last night was one of those nights. Every time she stopped eating Duchess just howled. She was crying so much that our Mistress had to conclude there was something wrong. It wasn’t just your normal puppy mumbling, it was full blown ear splitting howling. Anyway, our Mistress weighs them all in an evening just to check things are going ok and found that either Duchess was working on being a Greater Swiss Mountain Dog or she was most likely constipated. Thankfully our Mistress discussed the problem with Shadow who spent a little longer helping her daughter going to the toilet and before you knew it not only had the howling stopped but her weight was a little more as we’d expect.
It is a good job Shadow is not on 24hour a day internet tv this time with the pups as she has decided that if there is a perfectly good heat pad in the other pen, why should she have to stay somewhere she is too warm just to keep the puppies warm. Every time she’s finished feeding she simply gets out of the whelping box and hands them over to our Mistress. We’ve been used to that happening after a couple of weeks in the past, but on only their 6th day it seems a bit mean of their mum. Ironically every so often Shadow will then get back into the box and ask for them back again, just when they have all got settled. It’s infuriating but we’re working round it. The problem is that this week the pups need about 29 to 30 degrees centigrade of heat and Shadow would ideally be the one to provide it. The floor of the whelping box is 24 degrees so that they can cuddle up to her or move away a little when they’re comfortable. She still gets out if we drop the temperature down, so it doesn’t make much odds. Anyway, the heat pad is working well and they all seem content with the arrangement. It means our Mistress can sleep more soundly for hour to two hour bursts between feeds and for those times doesn’t have worries about Shadow rolling on the pups.
Today’s weights are Duchess 780g – up 30 on yesterday. D’Artagnan 730g – up 40 on yesterday. Dixie 720g – up 45 on yesterday and little Della 665g – up 45 on yesterday. Of the 22 pups we’ve had over the years 9 have been lighter than Della at this stage and only 3 have been heavier than Duchess – so they are all in the right range and going the right way.
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