Chihuahua Update

Since last week, things are looking up for the Chihuahua pups. All of the pups are stable, alert, and eating well. The shelter had some of the old formula milk replacer in their freezer and since we’ve switched back everyone’s doing great. We’re still hearing some congestion noises, but all things considered, I think we’ve turned the corner. Harriett and I are allowing ourselves to be optimistic about the outcome of this litter.

The pups were three weeks old on Saturday. This is the age at which we see many physical and behavioral changes. Their eyes are open and they can hear. The shape of their skulls is changing to a classic Chihuahua shape and their ears are starting to lift. Their teeth are also starting to come in.

We noticed tonight that Megan and Brian are starting to play mouth games (also known as play fighting). That’s a major milestone for puppies. I’ll be posting more on this important behavior in a future post.

The pups also had their first visitors on Sunday. They’re still not terribly active, but they stayed awake for about 15 minutes and didn’t mind being held and passed around.

It’s hard not to be amazed at how small they are! Megan, the biggest pup, is smaller than some newborns we’ve had in other litters. The three little ones only weigh about a half pound each. When fully grown, these pups will probably weigh only a few pounds.

Now that the puppies seem to be healthy, we will begin regular PuppyCam broadcasts later this week. I’ll send a tweet and post a note here when we decide the schedule. If all goes well we may be able to have a broadcast on Tuesday evening. Keep in mind, however, that puppies of this age sleep about 95% of the time. Don’t expect too much action.

PuppyCam: Meet the Pups

We’ll have a special PuppyCam broadcast on Saturday afternoon, June 12, from 1:00 to 2:00 pm CDT. We’ll introduce the pups, weigh them, and do their scheduled feeding. The event will be recorded, so if you can’t make it you’ll be able to see the replay.

A Visit From Auntie Cindypup

Today was a first for Harriett and I. Nancy Kramer (aka Cindypup) and her husband Gus came for a visit. Nancy was one of the first people to follow the PupsIsPups PuppyCam, and it’s largely because of her that we have so many regular viewers on the cam.

Nancy is one of the “Cyber Aunties,” a group of (mostly) women who follow puppy cams on ustream. They form a regular social group that moves from cam to cam. Nancy has been a great supporter of our foster dogs and Champaign County Humane Society (CCHS).

We met Nancy and Gus at CCHS where we were joined by Tief, the Executive Director, and Barbara Meyer (aka puppylover44), for a tour of the shelter building. After a quick lunch we went back to the Shelter to pick up Ace, a new foster dog, then headed back to our house to meet the puppies. Our friend Tammie (aka Daisysmom) stopped by to join us.

We had a wonderful visit with the puppies. The visit was broadcast live on PuppyCam.

We had a great time with Nancy and Gus, and we hope they enjoyed their visit as much as we did.

PuppyCam Returns

Starting tomorrow morning PuppyCam will be back on the air. Our normal broadcast hours will be 8-10 am Monday through Friday, 9-11 am on the weekends. In the afternoon we’ll broadcast from 4-7pm. We’ll have some scheduling conflicts and will be on reduced hours off and on, but we’ll try to stick to the schedule as much as we can. You can watch the cam here, in the window to the left, or you can go directly to our PupsIsPups Ustream channel.

Also remember that in our rural community we’re at the mercy of the weather gods for the reliability of our internet connection. When it’s storming or very windy we may lose the signal or not be able to be on at all.

The picture to the right is puppy number 5. He’s the one who’s mostly brown. We think he may turn out to be brindle, like his mom. Cute, isn’t he?

The pups aren’t gaining as much weight as we’d like and number 7 has lost a little since birth. Harriett’s continuing with the supplemental feeding. Lucille doesn’t seem to have enough milk to support everyone, but at least she’s here for their emotional development and to keep them clean.

Lucille continues to be a very attentive mother. It’s even hard to get her to leave the pups long enough to eat and go outside.

Also check out the picture at the top of this post. You can clearly see the scar on Lucille’s neck from whatever contraption was used on her. It looks too low to be from a collar. I’m guessing it might be from a cable. A lot of people use overhead cable trolleys or cables on stakes in the ground to tie their dogs outside. That scar goes all the way around her neck.

First Feeding

We’re going to broadcast the first feeding on PuppyCam Friday morning at 8:30am. Don’t worry if you can’t watch it live, a taped replay will be available on UStream and Vimeo.

PuppyCam Changes

We’re really surprised at the number of people who say they are watching PuppyCam. Unfortunately, because we live in a rural area we cannot get a high speed internet connection that will let us stream the cam all day, every day. We’ve decided to try a new schedule (times are US CDT):

• 8:00am – 10:00am to give everyone a chance to see the pups in the morning before the work day gets underway
• 4:00pm – 8:00pm so you can check on the pups before going home from work. Once the pups are weaned there will be a feeding around 4:30pm and we have play time starting at around 7pm. The pups usually fall asleep by 8pm.

We’ll announce special times, such as their first feeding, etc., so you can tune in if you’re interested. We’re also switching to UStream TV to host our channel. The chat box on the left under PuppyCam is live and messages you type there will be shown to everyone else who’s watching. You can also watch from our channel page at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/pupsispups

As I am writing this on Sunday afternoon there are thunderstorm warnings, winds are gusting over 20mph, and power lines are down a few miles from our house (http://www.news-gazette.com/news/local/2009/03/08/thousands_in_champaign_county_at_ui_without_power). Our radio signal is lost and the internet connection is down so we can’t broadcast. If we’re not on when we are supposed to be, we’re probably having bad weather or our radio signal is down. It’s too bad we weren’t on today because everyone missed Number 5 taking his first real steps---a milestone!

PuppyCam Schedule

Due to bandwidth restrictions at our rural location, we will only be able to broadcast PuppyCam from 4:00pm to 9:00pm (Central time). We’ll make announcements here for special broadcast events, like the first feeding or puppy playtimes.

PuppyCam

PuppyCam is now live. I finally got the video software to work so we can stream video from the puppy room. By popular demand the audio will usually be turned on so you can hear the puppy sounds. The downside of having audio is that you’ll hear Daisy bark when she hears us leaving the house or coming home. You can't see her, but she's in the room and is usually laying just outside the box.

The video will be turned off at night when we put Daisy and the pups to bed sometime between 9:30 and 10:30 pm (central time). I can’t guarantee it will be on all the time during the day, but I’ll try to have it on as much as possible.

The whelping box you see in the video is in the corner of the puppy room. It’s a DuraWelp by Breeder-Base. The box was donated to the shelter and we thought we would give it a try. After the pups can walk we will remove the box and give them free run of that room.

In just two days we’ve had over 500 views. I can’t believe you guys are watching this at work. I hope there isn’t too much barking.

Eyes are starting to open!