Puppies: One Week old

The puppies are officially one week old and utterly thriving. You would not believe how much weight they have gained. Angel is now as heavy as Ditzy 'the tank' was at her birth weight so it is really positive. Clem is slowly putting on weight but still gaining so that is good. Blossom still is huge and a whinge, she constantly peeps and whines when away from Lily. They have got a lot more active as well, they used to just push themselves about using their back legs, now they are seal crawling all over each other and mum. They are due to open their eyes on the tenth, which is the date I go back to uni, I think I'll cry. I want to steal them all. My sister already left and I don't envy her.

I bathed Lily today as the puppies are big enough to be left alone for a while, while I dried her off. She was really well behaved and let me use the hair drier to warm her up.  She looks a lot better now she is bathed as she was quite crusty. Now she smells lovely.

After her bath though she was running up and down rubbing on the rug to dry herself more and our other dog Rolly tried to play. She was not impressed with this and jumped in her nest. He then tried to follow and chaos broke out. Lily went to savage him, I grabbed the puppies so they didn't get squished. Lily followed me as I had the pups, leaving Rolly in the nest. I put the puppies on the couch, with a cushion in the way so no one could fall off and unceremoniously dumped Rolly out the box. Then sent him to the kitchen. We've now erected a play pen cage and we've brought his cage in so he has a bed in the living room too. Rolly is not impressed, he has shown no aggression to the pups but I think he is missing Lilys company.

Yours

Belinda Stepford

xxx

Puppy Classifications

Today we had a visit from Bev, the owner of Lewis the stud who is daddy dog to our little things. She was so excited about their progress and had loads of advice on pretty much everything. Bev has eleven dogs, all dachshunds, but she is not a puppy miller, she is just an enthusiast. She doesn't show her dogs, despite them being gorgeous as she doesn't like the way it is run. She was very happy to see how Lily was getting on with the pups. The puppies have a breeding score of 5.7 which is really good, though Lily is 5.4 so Lewis has brought it up its still well below the breed standard, the lower the number the better. Added to that they have be PRA tested and both parents are clear so there is no chance the puppies are affected. Dachshunds are sometime effected by a genetic disorder that can make them blind so responsible breeders don't breed from PRA carriers as the hope is to breed out that genetic strain. Bev also confirmed to colours of the pups so we correctly idenify them on their KC register, I never realised how many colours dachshunds come it, they are one of the most varied coloured breeds. I assumed our puppies where just black and tan, which is like Lily and common but they aren't. They have a mixed bag of genetics. 

Angel is a tricoloured brindle (shes mostly black with a slight cream brindling on her paws and a white flash on her chest). Brindle is similar to spots but less regular, kind of speckled, they used to be considered a flaw but now are really sort after.

Blossom is a black and cream, which is apparently a really sort after colour, added to that both Lily and Lewis have british cream in their genetics. Lilys shire was a cream dog which is currently the most sort after colour so Blossom will be snapped up soon (which will make her sale value roughly 900 - 1000), Bev already has people interested in the pups.  Blossom also has a white flash on her chest which looks absolutely beautiful.

Clementine is a black and cream brindle which is really uncommon too, she looks exactly like Lewis, which Bev adored as none of Lewis' other pups have come out looking so like him. I was so scared last night Lilly in an attempt to move her nest drop Clem out onto our hardwood floors, she is absolutely fine though, puppies at their age are surprisingly resilient. We're keeping a extra close eye on her though. 

Ditzy is a big chunky bruiser, who is black and tan with a white spot on her chest. She has completely stunning regular markings just like her mum, when he coat grows long she is going to be a winner. She is over three hundred grams now and she is only six days old, not bad for a miniature dachshund. 

It will be heart breaking when we come to sell the pups, I think we're going to keep Angel the little runt which will make it a little easier to bare. Bev even though she is prolific breeder finds it heartbreaking still to give her pups away.  Bev also regularly visits her old pups and keeps in contact with all her owners so she can guarantee that they are well cared for which is why we are trusting her network of people to find acceptable homes for our three girls or four if we don't keep Angel... My sister is getting very reluctant to leave them alone as she is leaving for University in the morning. I go back on the tenth, so not looking forward to that.

Later in the day my parents and I went to view a house which was a total wreck but had buckets of potential. Fatherbean is going to see the accountant tomorrow and see if its a viable investment, I do hope they get it I am so terribly bored of our current place and my uni house I can't do anything with as it is rented. A project house could mean I could have a fun place to play with over summer, Mim took me with her as she often uses me to persuade Fatherbean that the house has potential. I have in the past built houses on the sims to show him what we would do to them.  So we will have to wait and see what happens with that one though. 

Yours

Belinda Stepford

xxx

Even more puppy news

This morning we weighed all the puppies to make sure they are all developing properly and I've got great news to report, they are all gaining weight. Even Angel who has managed to gain a whopping 29 grams. This pretty much means they are doing well and should continue to be healthy, in all likelihood they are are out the woods.  

Yours 

Belinda Stepford

xxx

News on the Puppies

We took the pups to visit the vet today, Bev the lady who owns the Stud we used Lewis came along to see the babies. She was so excited to see them, she was very impressed with their markings, as both parents have champion lines the pups turned out well. The vet weighted, checked over and listened to all the pups in turn. Angel is a healthy weight of 160g, she is just comparatively smaller than the others. Blossom is 260g which is a good brute of a weight. The major surprise was Ditzy who weighted in at 270g, she and Blossom are so much bigger than Clementine and Angel so we have to make sure they aren't pushed out by the bigger two. 

Angel has also managed to suckle on her own without being put on the teat so the worry is over, the vet couldn't guarantee that she didn't have a cleft pallet because she refused to open her mouth for him, but he said if she suckles and there isn't milk bubbles then its highly unlikely she has one. The concern the pups might have cleft pallets is that one of Lewis' previous pups had one, though that might have just been a fluke caused in the womb (like Angels tail) the pup had to be euthanised so Bev wanted the vet to be thorough with our puppies.  As it goes thought they are all doing well and Lily seems very proud of her brood.

Yours

Belinda Stepford

xxx 

Puppy Personalities

Over the course of today the puppies personalities started to show a little. Blossom the largest pup is defiantly demanding, squealing if Lily so much as moves to wee. Clementine who is second biggest is a little more cuddly, happy to snuggle into anyone who picks her up. Ditzy is second smallest is very laid back but happy to push her siblings around.

 Angel, Angel is a worry. She is the first born and smallest, she has taken an awful long to to suckle and seems to get bullied by her sisters a lot. Lily is attentive but she is the runt of the litter. She also has a kink in her tail from being squished in the womb so we're worried she might not be the strongest. We're trying to encourage her to suckle when the other pups are sleeping, we also syringe fed her a few times today to make sure she had some nutrition, she also got very cold when Lily left to go the loo so we moved all the pups onto the heat pad.

Yours 

Belinda Stepford

xxx

A Surprise fourth

At four twenty four this morning, the forth and hopefully final pup made its entrance into this world. We thought she was done by the third girl to be honest, she birth the after birth and everything. Yet another one was still waiting, and its a girl so this one is Lounge Dox Belle Ditzy. Four bright eyed, healthy. black and tan girlies. Lily is a very attentive mother, when we lifted her out the nest momentarily to change the soaked towels she was very quick to wriggle free and climb back in with her babies. When we gave Ditzy a little formula Lily watched us very closely handling her babe. 

Yours

Belinda Stepford

xxx

Third is out and healthy

The third was a very nerve wrecking birth, Lily hardly had any contractions or showed signs of birthing and within the space of a minute she went from not even remotely looking like she would birth to having legs sticking out of her. Hind legs... we had a breach, Mim had to help pull the pup out. The poor thing took a few to many seconds before coughing into life, Lily licked her a bit then set about cleaning the nest so we set about rubbing her with a towel and shaking her awake. Shes currently curling up to mum squeaking happily. So now we wait to see if shes the last or if we've got another on the way. We've been giving the older pups formula in syringes as Dachshunds don't feed their pups until the last one is out and as its been such a long birth we decided it would be best to keep them going. 

Yours 

Belinda Stepford

xxx

Second one is out.

This one is a girl, we checked and so is the other one, it can be a little difficult to tell when they are so small. So we have a Angel and a Blossom, we're naming them so its alphabetical for their show names to keep track of how many of them there are. 'Longue Dox Belle' is the prefix show name for the girls, 'Longue  Dox Beau' is the prefix for the boys.

This one is a lot darker than the other, we think the other one will be more dappled and this one will be black and tan. Lily has defiantly got the hang of being a mum now, no scuttling away afraid, she licked her clean straight away and cuddled her close. Our two cats and other dog have been very interested  to see what is in the box but we've been keeping them away as you can never predict how they will react to the pups. There is at least one more to come, you can feel it in her belly, but maybe two more due.  Lily is currently curled up with her babies on the heat mat under blankets and sleeping.

Yours 

Belinda Stepford

xxx

New Year and New Life

Welcome to 2012 everyone. This year is already shaping up to be exciting, at ten past three this afternoon Lily gave birth to a tiny little puppy. Its a boy. Both pup and Mum are doing well, she seemed a bit unsure at first but its going better now, it is her first litter after all.  We're expecting more pups but it could be another 24 hours before another one makes an appearance, I'll keep you informed. 

Yours 

Belinda Stepford

xxx