June 19, 2012 Whelping pen renovation

Good evening All,

As you can see the blue box is rapidly becoming too small. These guys are complaining that either there  is not enough room or that they are too hot. Bobi's first litter lined up under a rotating fan and instead of heating the house we had to turn on the air conditioning. I wore a sweater. Can you imagine?

If you look closely, you can see Morgan's skull and cross bone blanket under these guys. Passing on a family tradition ;-)

I'm not sure if you can see it from here but these kids are PHAT!! ok, fat....
Which in my books is ok for the first few weeks of life. Once they become more active it's better to start watching their weight on bone development.

Now this is a face I can watch all night.... well, ok, maybe not all night, one must get some sleep too

Bobi was given a chance to Reno or Relocate.... Great little show .... ok, too much time on my hands.... So we asked her if we did a satisfactory reno would she love it or list it and move to the outdoor kennel.
With her whelping pen size doubled, I think she is happy to stay in the kitchen for at least the time being.

Ok, Here is the whelping box renovation reveal ;-)
Just never realize all the details that are missing until the photo is taken. Should have spent a bit more time organizing the puppy box, scale, weight log sheets, baby monitor, ribbon box, sun lamp and camera bag but....  that's probably why I'm raising puppies and not an interior designer....
Another thing I have learned along the way is to provide as much sun light or simulated sun light as possible to help strong bone development. Anyone out there able to tell me why? It does seem to work, if you look at our puppy's bones they are strong and well developed. Possibly due to increased Vitamin D production maximizing calcium uptake? Not sure myself but would love to know. 

For those of you that haven't been to the house before let me describe this lay out. The whelping box is a 5'x5' plywood box that has a 2x4 on edge around the interior of the box to prevent puppies crawling up behind the mom and getting squished. That is no fun to come home to and a hard phone call to make to the puppy person ;-(  

Usually, the second half of the whelping space is just large enough for Mommie to escape from the pups and I can open the door so she can go out to relieve herself. With this litter we have actually expanded this space to match the whelping pen and will keep the two litter groups separated as long as possible.
The cabinetry you see is actually our kitchen. We believe strongly on keeping our hands close at hand for early puppy development. 

full tummies are the best ;-D

Finally got the puppy manicures done this evening. What a difference for Bobi.

Also looked at the weather in Ontario, Iowa, Georgia and Colorado. I'll bet you are wondering why, aren't you? Puppies will be headed in all those directions. Temperatures are in the high 20s low 30s. OMG, the airlines will not be able to fly them in at that temperature. We will need to do some serious planning to get these guys home.

On the other hand, how lucky are you to have summer already at your door. We are still in the high teens low 20s. Burrrr.... where's my parka????

Cheers,