Neverland-Retrievers

April has been close to getting out of the box for the last couple of days, but Wednesday evening she finally made it onto the family room floor. The floor is ceramic tile and we have a small rug outside the box doorway. Tink likes to lay on this rug to get away from the puppy, but April is able to look for and find her mother. On Wednesday evening, Tink was laying on the rug and April was struggling at the door way to get to her when she tumbled over the doorway onto the rug. The three of us (Tink, me and April) were surprised. After a little exploring around the box I put her back inside. Not more then a minute or two later, she was out again. I figured it was time to setup the pen, that Al was kind enough to loan us, around the box entrance. No sooner was the pen setup and newspaper placed on the floor, that April was out again and baptizing the floor. She flops over the door so fast, that I put some towels down to cushion the fall and give her a way to climb back in. She hasn’t figured out how to get back in, yet. I’ll try to get it on video and post it soon.

April is significantly more active in the last few days. She’s trying to play with Tink by pawing at her and running into her. Tink’s been very patient and usually responses, after awhile, by knock her over. April is also playing with the pheasent wing hanging in the box. She lays on the floor and swipes it with her paws or walks around and tries to bite or push on it with her mouth. I found a stuffed pheasent toy and have been trying get her to chase it. She actually grabbed it by the neck, picked it up and walked around with it for a few seconds. I wish I could have got a photo.

I’m starting to feed her blended kibble and diluted puppy formula. She is eating small amount at each feeding, but still relies on mom for the main course. She now weighs 5.66 lbs (2.57 kg), and only gained 1 oz since yesterday.

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Here are a few pictures of the three week old April.

    

April is developing her own personality. She doesn’t like to have her nails cut, but what Flat-Coat does. Tink will fight me to the bitter end to prevent having her nails cut. April likes to climbing onto the rail to sleep.She doesn’t like being alone in the holding box. She likes playing with her mom and the SnugglePuppies. The black and brown toys are her littermates.

On the physical side, at three weeks old she now weighs 5.0 lbs. Her canine teeth and molars are erupting. She has a wonderful puppy coat, very dense and full. The VetGen DNA ChromaGene Coat Color results came in today, she is Type 1, BBEE, carrier black, does not carry liver or yellow. Tink is also BBEE and Ferro is BbEE (carries black and liver).

Aprils is eating a bit more weaning food each morning and evening, but still nurses for her main nutrition.

I placed a pheasant wing in the whelping box to accustom her to the scent. I’ve also used a staple gun in the room, without the staples, to simulate a loud pop noise. At first she flinched, but after a few more pops, she just ignored it and went to sleep.

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Last night I fed April a small amount of puppy weaning food. She lapped it up tentatively at first and walked through the plate a bit until she got the idea of standing at the edge to lick at it. Today, Tinks and I were outside for most of the afternoon, so when we came in I put approximately 60 ml of food on a small saucer plate in the whelping box. April must have smelled it, because she came right over and lapped it all up like she’d been at it for a while.

April is much more active and routinely plays with her mom. She bites on Tink’s ear flap or paws at her head. Tink doesn’t seem to mind much, but after awhile she puts April in her place.

April’s weight change is steady, See Chart Below, and now weighs 4.66 lb (2.11 kg).

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It’s Saturday and life is moving a bit slower this morning. April is more active with each day. She is mainly walking around the whelping box. I only see her crawling now when she climbs onto the rail. Eventually she rolls off and falls onto the soft floor. She broke 4 lbs yesterday and weighs 4.41 lb (2.0 kg) today. Here are some current pictures. Of course, Tink could not stand that April was getting all the photo opps, so she jumped onto the couch and posed for a few with her daughter.

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April is now taking tenative steps around the whelping box. She likes to crawl onto the rail and sometimes sleeps with her head on it in the corner of the box. I’ve placed several items in the box to get her attention. She found the blue squeaky crab and thought the claw was one of mom’s milk dispensers. We went to the vet today to remove Tink’s stitches and give April a quick check. Everything is fine with both. At two weeks old, April weighs 3.59 lbs (1.63 kg). By comparison, at two weeks old Tink weighed 3.1 lbs. April is about .5 lb ahead at the same stage of development.

Below is a picture of mom and puppy taking a snooze.

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Here are some current pictures of April.

   

April and Tink are doing fine. I relocated the webcam because April has tried to climb out of the whelping box. The webcam view of mom and daughter was blocked when I close the front door. The current view is unaffected and give a different perspective. April started opening her eyes on day 10. They are not completely opened yet, just little deep blue slits. I changed the bedding in the whelping box to the Sterilon pad and placed newspaper underneath. Aprils is having BM on her own now, so this should make clean up easier. I have to mention that I’ve been following Melody’s Whelping notes. I also purchased several books with similar information, but her note are very concise and thorough. Thanks M! April broke past 3 lbs today, See Chart Below. Her current weight is 3.15 lbs (1.43 kg). She’s gaining an average of 3.1 oz/day or 11% body weight per day. The normal range is 1.7-5.5 oz/day or 5-10%. I’ve cut her nails twice by now, but they seem to grow very fast. Like Tink, this is not her favorite activity.

Also, I’ve had an ISP problem in the last couple of days, that affected my web site and webcam. It has been temporarily resolved. A more permanent fix is coming soon which may put the webcam offline a few hours one day this week.

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This morning April weighed 37.5 oz (1063 g). Eyes and ear are still closed. The little munchkin sleeps and eats, in that order. A few more tenative steps this evening and a couple of barks while sleeping. I know she’s not dreaming, so it must be reflex or just copying mom, hope not the later.

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It is unbelievable to me, but today April took her first steps on all four legs! Her eyes are still closed, but she managed to take a couple of steps towards mom. I didn’t imagine it, even my daughter Jessica saw her when she repeated it again a few seconds later. Also, she almost managed to climb onto the rail just a minute later. This morning she weighed 35 oz (992 g) as she continues a steady weight increase.

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