Harriett and I were thinking tonight how grateful we are to have Daisy along with the pups. We feel bad that her life has been so disrupted, she’s been discarded, and will have to compete at the Shelter to find another home. But on the other hand, she does some important things much better than we can.
The first two literally mean life or death for the puppies: feeding and stimulating. At this age the pups are only able to eat small amounts of milk and they need to be fed every two to three hours around the clock. If Daisy weren’t here, Harriett and I would split the times up so each of us could sleep through the night on alternating days. This schedule has to be kept up until the pups are three weeks old, then we can switch to four hours between feedings. Daisy takes care of this for us. She doesn’t spend all her time with the puppies, but she moves in an out of the whelping box so they have food available when they need it. In addition, her milk is much superior to any of the commercial formulas we would be forced to use if she wasn’t here.
Until the puppies are at least three weeks old they are unable to urinate or defecate. Each puppy must be stimulated to pee and poop after each feeding. Failure to do this can result in extreme pain and even death. Even though we have had a lot of practice with litters we received without a mother, we’re no match for mom. Daisy stimulates each pup while it’s nursing and keeps the pups and whelping box very clean. She will continue to do this until the pups have been weaned onto solid food.
The third important thing Daisy does is teach the pups about proper canine behavior. As they grow and get teeth she will start teaching them about bite inhibition and acceptable behavior. Of course we do our part with socialization and bite inhibition, but it is much more difficult for us to do these things. Mom can convey a message of disapproval with a simple growl or harmless snap faster and more effective than we ever could. If you’d like to see what it takes to raise one orphan puppy from newborn to 8 weeks, here’s a video we put together for a pup we had last year:
For those of you following Daisy’s puppies’ weight gain, here’s the data from tonight’s weigh-in at 6:30 compared to last night’s weights (all in grams):
| Puppy | Last Night | Tonight | Change |
| 1 | 840 | 945 | +105 (!) |
| 2 | 710 | 795 | +85 |
| 3 | 465 | 490 | +25 |
| 4 | 445 | 505 | +60 |
| 5 | 755 | 775 | +20 |
Great post! Do the puppies always feed at the same time, as in the video? Or do they also nurse individually whenever they're hungry?
ReplyDeleteExcellent post, Tom. Very informative - and fun to watch!
ReplyDeleteGood question.
ReplyDeleteFeeding is not done "on demand." The mother does not go into the box each time a puppy starts to whine, so once she goes in all of the pups will usually start to nurse. It usually takes a few minutes for all of them to wake up and make their way to their mother, but eventually they will all push their way into the group.
The exception to this is a puppy who is not feeling well. Then it may not join the group and will begin to lose weight. Daily weighing helps to catch these problems early.
The mother has 8 nipples and the pups have to compete with each other for a spot. The nipples do not have the same amount of milk available--the ones in the back are the "best." There's a lot of pushing and shoving and a small pup in a large litter can starve. Another reason we watch weight gains so closely is to be sure everyone is getting a chance to eat. For a large litter we will actually enforce shifts so the small pups don't get edged out or move the small pups to the back so they can get the most milk.
Thanks for the explanation.
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