Hope's Puppies Born!

Hope's puppies were born this morning, 4 boys and 3 girls! All are doing well and already gaining an ounce or 2 each. These first few days are mostly about making sure they are thriving and gaining weight, and helping mama have a clean non-disrupted place to feed her puppies. We change out the bedding a few times a day to keep things extra clean and dry. We check puppies weights daily the first 2 weeks, and check mama's temperature to be sure she isn't getting any types of uterine infection or mastitis. She eats A LOT and will spend most of her time with them the first week especially. We make her special foods like liver, boiled chicken and rice, mother's pudding (goats milk, egg yolks, oil, sugar, gelatin), calcium supplements, puppy food (it's higher calorie and protein/fat), and broth, just to name a few of things on her menu! We want to keep her calories and calcium up for nursing, it's a whole lot easier than supplementing the puppies ourselves. It's important the puppies have a temperature controlled environment, not too hot, but definitely not too cold as they are unable to regulate their own body temps yet. We keep either a heat lamp or heating pad in their box at all times, but only in one area so they can move away from it if they get too warm. Mama stimulates them to eliminate by licking their bums and bellies. If she doesn't do it, we have to do it for her. So far Hope is an excellent first time mama and doing all the things she should be doing! It's pretty amazing to watch instincts kick in and she'll do all the things without being taught. She watches over them well but is not overly worried or overly protective, she is such a relaxed and chill girl, you'd never guess this was her first time!

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