Neverland-Retrievers

As anyone will tell you, if they bred a litter, it’s alot of work! I know it’s been ten days since my last posting, but not for lack of trying. Until last night, when I put away the whelping box and setup the puppy play pen, I have been in the routine of feeding, cleaning, washing, folding… repeat, repeat…. Seven puppies is definitely more work than I expected. On Day 23, I introduced the puppies to doggy mash (Blended 2.5 cups Kibble, 1/2 can Merrick Puppy Plate, and 16 ozs of milk replacement) to start the weaning process. At that time, their poop change and the quanity increased significantly. It’s been a constant battle to keep them clean. Now that the pen is up, it’s a bit easier, but the 1″ grid spacing on the floor is not perfect and we still need to be attentive when they start to squat.

Enough on that subject, today the weather was very nice, sunny and high temp in the 50’s F, so it was time to take the puppies outside for the first time. Here is a pic in the play pen with Morgan eyeing the play toys.

Day-31 Outside Play with Uncle Morgan Standing Guard

I also found it interesting the girls (Orange, White and Pink) were the first to pickup and run with the duck toy or bumper. See for yourself:

Ms. White with Bumper

Ms Pink with Bumper

Ms Orange with Duck Toy

Of course, the boys finally got into the action when Mr. Yellow figured out what to do with the ducky.

Mr Yellow with Duck Toy

 The weather is forecasted to be nice for the rest of the week, so check the puppy cam for some outside action in the afternoon.

…P

The pups are three weeks old today and they are growing steadily. The white collar bitch is the smallest at 4.0 lbs and the blue dog is the largest at 5.2 lbs. For those watching the puppies on the webcam, the white collar bitch is now wearing a pink and white poke a dot collar. There isn’t a white puppy collar to be found anywhere.

Wendy is spending less time in the whelping box these days. Everytime she steps inside the box, the puppies mall her in a feeding frenzy. They are now so large that only 3 or 4 can nurse with Wendy laying down. But ever the thoughtful mom, Wendy has found a new way of nursing most of the puppies at once. Just check out the image below.

Wendy Nursing the Litter

Today was another milestone day for the litter. The puppies were introduced to semi-solid food. I don’t foresee any difficulty in weaning them from their mom, as they ate the weaning formula readily. See for yourself:

Puppies First Solid Food

 Guess which puppies eat the most? Yes, blue dog and orange bitch! When the food was all gone, the red dog visited every puppy to clean the excess food off their coat.

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Today we noticed the puppies eyes starting to open and at the same time some are walking on all four legs. The blue collar dog  and orange collar bitch are the most developed and forceful, especially at nursing time. They will push the other pups off a prime nipple or quickly race to the best position. Let’s see how they continue developing. I think they will have excellent retriever instincts.

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This evening we performed our usually Superdog Stimulation which you can read about at http://www.breedingbetterdogs.com/articles/early_neurological_stimulation_en.php. I trimed the puppies nails and check their collar to make sure it’s not too tight. I also tried to take a close-up photo of the green collar dog. Here is the image.

Close-up of the Green Collar Dog

I’ve forgot how quickly these pups grow.

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Just a quick post this morning to show the litter wt charts below.

Day 11 Weight Graphs

As you can see, the pups are steadily gaining weight. The Green collar dog has just reached 3 lbs and they are all within 12 oz of each other.

I have noticed a decreased interest by Wendy to spend extended time in the whelping box. Last night, for example, she slept most of the night at the foot of my bed. I did not hear her go into the whelping box at all. I keep triming the puppies nail to help reduce the scratching on her underside.

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First day back to work, it was tough leaving the puppies, but Deb is getting into caring for them while I’m away. We’ve been trimming their nails every few day. Their nails are like cat claws and poor Wendy has red marks on her under side. Today we noticed two of them drag racing. I’m sure they didn’t know what they were doing, but from our perspective it was quite funny. The Blue boy won the race, by the way. It’s also interesting to watch them when Wendy enters the whelping box. They can be sound asleep, but the second she walks in, there’s a race to see who gets the prime nipple. The White collar bitch is the smallest right now, but only by a few ozs, so we’ve been helping the underdog get the prized position first.

Today I recieved the following pic from Tomas in Sweden. He has been watching the webcam and it appears the puppies dad, Sune, is also quite interested in their well being.

Sune keeping an eye on his puppies from Sweden

The puppies eyes will be opening any day and things will start geting really interesting. I’ll  try to post some video of their antics, so keep reading.

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A weeks gone by and the puppies have doubled in weight. The Alpha male is the blue collar dog and the Alpha female is the Orange collar bitch. They have figured out how to push the other pups off mom’s nipple by submarining under the pack while feeding. All the puppies are steadily gaining weight averaging from .1 to .25 lbs per day. Here are a few pictures of the pups.

Red, Yellow, White and Green Pups

Blue boy at his second favorite activity

Yellow and Pink Pup

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Today was a trip to the vet for dewclaw removal. Dr Dove snips off the entire toe with hardly a whimper from each pup. Wendy had a checkup as well and she is doing fine. She is very attentive to the litters needs. After returning from the vet, I spent some time working in the yard on our kennel (subject for another day) and Wendy had some time to run and play with Morgan. After a short while, however, she was standing at the house door crying to get back in to be with the litter. I let her in and she promptly made her way to the whelping box. The mother instinct is very strong with this Flat-Coat.

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