Penny's puppies to Mats
Page 2: The first week

Previously:
Page 1: Pregnancy and birth

Penny and her pups aged 1 and 2 days (remember 3 were born on the Monday and 9 on the Tuesday!)

Wednesday the 8th of April 2015

Thursday the 9th of April

9th of April

Friday the 10th of April 2015





Friday the 10th


Happy Penny, pups 4/5 days old
It's Saturday the 11th and we were worried that Penny was a bit too restless so to play safe she went to the vet to be checked over. She had a scan to check no afterbirth was left inside her, and a blood test to check her calcium levels. She behaved perfectly despite being away from her pups, and got a clean bill of health.

Sunday the 12th of April 2015. The whelping box is being cleaned and we try to fit all 12 pups into a cardboard box for a few moments. We need a bigger box!

All done
(We bought a 10 metre roll of vetbed, hence it looks the same even when it has just been changed as all the pieces come from the same roll!)





Not all the pups can be fed at the same time (there are only ten teats) and usually Penny feeds them in shifts -but here all try to suckle at once. I am topping up the pups with extra milk when needed  (Welpi puppy milk) -they are all weighed every evening and those that have not gained enough weight in the past 24 hours get a few bottlefeeds the next day to catch up.

All the pups aged 5 and 6 days (Pink, Black and Red are the ones born a day before the rest)

Penny is totally relaxed and perfectly happy to let the other dogs meet her pups. Most of the time the other dogs can't get to them (as you can see the whelping box is inside a huge pen, 6 foot tall),
so they all have peace and quiet, but in particular Rona (who has had pups herself) is very keen to meet the pups so once a day or so we let her, and Penny doesn't mind the slightest if Rona wants to come and say hello. Here Rona is in the box and Penny is watching.

Next Penny decided that Rona might as well babysit for a while, so Penny walked off and left the room!

The next day and Penny has once again opened her home to visitors. Little Walnut the 4 month old Papillon puppy (a male one at that) falls in love with the puppies and even washes them.

NEXT: One week old