Hi Everyone,
Thought I might share the whelping box set up with you today.
Raising small breeds is more than a little different than the larger breeds. For instance, the whelping box. If I put Ocean in the shepherd whelping box she and her pups would be lost in all that space. Pups would, potentially, fall off the heated area and quickly become hypothermic. So this is what I came up with: A foldable play pen. It is easily moved; takes up less space; is see through so I have clear line of sight at all times; tucks under my kitchen counter and is easily acquired, used, on Craig's list or other internet sale sites.
As you can see, it is large enough to hold the bottom of a small kennel which is used here as the bed and has room for an area outside of it for Ocean to emergency pottie, eat or simply just stretch. The heating pad is large enough that it takes up the entire bottom of the small crate and there are no cold areas for the puppies to 'fall' into. Top left corner in the play pen photo shows a light connected to the play pen frame. The concept of the light is to mimic sunlight and activate vitamin D which is collected in the oils of the dogs' coat and consumed when they groom their coats. The significance of vitamin D is, it is essential in strong healthy bone development when combined with Calcium. Ocean has been under 'the light', so to speak, for her entire pregnancy.
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| Proud mama with all of the kids nestled in close to her. |
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| Green boy today = 178 grams |
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| Blue boy today = 183 grams |
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| finally, figuring out that there is something worthwhile here to latch on to ;-) |
As you can see, everyone is gaining weight. We didn't even have the usual dip in weight gain within the first 24 hours. I'm happy with that for sure ;-)
Cheers,
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