Basya's litter is 3 weeks old today. And Jasmine's babies older for 4 days.
We never stop to be amazed , watching them grow at these early weeks of their life.
and observe such a rapid neurological growth and development.
Puppies are born totally depended of their mother. They are very temperature sensitive ,
their eyes and ears closed, can't walk and wriggle to get to the Mom's milk ,and can't even eliminate without stimulation.
Mom will feed them, clean them, and clean up after them.
And originally -they have tails! :-)
Now at 3 weeks the eyes and ears open ( well, eyes are still squinty ,
and this is a main reason why you don't see much of individual pictures of puppies - bright light in photoshoot isn't good for their eyes now :-) ) ,dew claws are removed, tails are cropped. Puppies can stand on their legs and start walking. They don't need stimulation for elimination anymore.
Every day the pups are becoming more and more mobile ,moving all around nestle.We have good heavy blankets with non-slippery structure in the puppy boxes, what given puppies good support when they start to try their legs,but still are wobbly and unsteady .
Social behavior start to develop -puppies interact with each other , we can see very beginning of play movements, touches with front paws, licking each other faces ,sometimes try to fallow each other.
They start to be more aware of the world , and even they don't pay much attention on the dogs and humans outside of box, but they start to react on humane voice while we are holding them, and concentrating more on movement around them.
Some of them found their voices , and we hear funny growling or squeaking noises from Jasmine's box and something remaining best of all a cat's purring sound - from Basya's .
What we have done and observed during these weeks ( not counting feeding the Moms- which are eating as crocodiles , and washing puppy's blankets every day) :
1. Right after birth and at first two weeks we weight puppies every day to see if they gain. After two weeks we still weight them, but not so often, just enough to see the line of each of them growing.
Pups double or almost triple their birth weight at first week and kept gaining. Interesting to see different dynamics of growing between two litters. Weighted at two weeks old, Jasmine's puppies were from 15 to 19 oz , and Basya's were from 20 to 25 oz. Both Jasmine and Basya had pups before , so we know how they grows and also can compare the weight chart from previous litters. Basya's pups always grow rapidly and look big and chubby, when Jasmine's pups always look smaller compare to them. However, when we see grown up dogs from both those litters, they all are about the same size.
In a period from two to three weeks also a picture of bigger/smaller puppies changed among Jasmine's puppies. Now two girls are the champions and about the same size with each other, despair the fact black girl was smaller then black/silver at birth , and smaller then two boys for two weeks. Now all boys are behind!
One black and black/silver boys smallest from the group, but gaining well for their own.
2. Early neurological stimulation exercises for each puppy ( from third to sixteen day ) .
ENS , other way known as Bio Sensor , is great program of stimulation of puppies by putting them through five exercises :Tactile stimulation ,Head held erect ,Head pointed down ,Supine position ,Thermal stimulation . Better development, stronger heart and immune system, higher trainability was noticed as a result of this program, started as a special program for service and working dogs. We have a good result with ENS as well, using it for the last 12 years, and during the exercises we also can observe a personality of each puppy.
3. Dew claws are removed, Tails are cropped.
4.Worming the puppies! Worming started at 2 weeks,repeated at 3. It will be continued till pups ready to go home, and every new family will have a record of worming ( and shots).
5. Trimming nails. Puppy's nails at this age growing very quickly , and they are sharp. Trimming puppy's nails every 5 days prevent Mom from being scratched while pups are nursing,and keep pup's legs on correct position when they start walking.
By the time we are done to trim nails in both litter, each time we had trimmed 176 little nails. :-) Every 5 dais. You do the math for 3 these three weeks. :-)
6. Handling , holding, talking and spoiling every one of them daily.
7. Charting weight gain, activity level , specific behavior and like/dislike of each puppy , making notes what later will play a role in the temperament classification and will help us to give new families better recommendations about training and living with their pup, or help them to choose the right one.
8. Started supplementary feeding of Jasmine's litter at 3 weeks. Basya's litter of 4 doesn't need it to be started till later,perhaps, at 4-4,5 weeks. Jasmine's babies can benefit from trying some food earlier.
First food is always mix of concentrated or whole goat milk with plain yogurt.
At 3 weeks old puppies are able to lap liquid food. Doesn't mean they do it too good. :-)
9. As puppies start to walk more and more, we are getting ready to expand their nestle box . Next update of puppy home will include potty area . This is a last picture of two side by side nestle boxes without extension yet.
