It's been a calm and peaceful week here at Northrock. I look after Edie and she looks after her puppies....ok with a litter of nine it's a bit more involved than that but you get the gist of it. She had a spa day with a long bath and conditioning treatment and was all brushed out and feeling quite fabulous I'm sure. Mother care is still hugely important and this week Edie ate about 250 to 300% of her maintenance amount of food. That's a lot of room service! She is a diligent mom and although she has begun to spend less time in the whelping box she will regularly go in to feed and clean her puppies. Although we spend a bit of time together in the yard most of her day is spent in the nursery where she can be close to her little ones and at hand to attend to their needs. Cleanliness is really important and the whelping box is wiped down and the bedding washed every day. Puppies are weighed twice daily and private nursing sessions are given to the smallest pups or the ones that hadn't gained as much the previous day. I'm glad they are all doing well and with this little bit of extra juggling we are seeing very consistent gains and not a huge disparity in weights among the puppies. Their nails are done about every three days and this week I switched from the human nails clippers to the dremel which I love in part because it has a little light on the end of it so I can better see what I'm doing but mostly because the nails are kept very smooth - this lessens the chance of the puppies scratching their mother's breast tissue which could lead to infection.
Early Scent Introduction and the Early Neurological Stimulation exercises which were started last week continued through this week as well. Plus lots of cuddle time with the pups with family members. Although most of the time all you see is puppies eating and sleeping, a lot of development is happening with the puppies. By the end of the week most of the puppies have tripled their birth weights and all are up on leg toddling about the box. We added soft toys as obstacles for the puppies to move over and around. All but one of the puppies have their eyes open and soon their hearing will come on line as well.
The coming week will bring even more change and development so check back next weekend for another puppy update from the whelping box!
These puppies have all been spoken for. If you would like to follow the litter's progress please join us on Facebook and like our Northrock Barbets page to see frequent updates and photos.
