I suspect another cause of lactation “issues” is lack of water.
Claire drinks SO much but only if we put the bowl under her nose. She is loath to leave her babies and nothing short of needing to heed the call of nature and/or human propulsion compels her from the whelping box.
If water consumption required her to get up and leave the whelping box, she would be dehydrated and that is a bad thing for milk production.
Without tiny life vests on the puppies, we cannot leave the bowl in there — even though we are right here.
So Claire is offered water every 20 - 30 minutes — around the clock — and she drinks every single time.
Puppy weight gain is going well.
We are entering the Smudge Puppy stage — look at the noses on Orion and Nova…
White on the face creates an illusion — these two puppies have similar heads but the amount of white on Sun makes his head seem so much bigger than Heze.
Kay created graphics that allow us to compare puppies and Coleen sent a baby photo of Ferguson and his sister. So here are the birth photos of the Bright Stars with their dad’s baby pic in the middle…
Ferguson and his sister
Thank you, Kay — this is fabulous! SUCH pretty puppies.
Today’s adventure is Degenerative Myelopathy (DM) testing, which involves an easy cheek swab. We are testing to see who is a DM carrier and who is clear — this means NOTHING for most of the homes. A carrier won’t have DM — only a puppy “at-risk” is — appropriately — at risk for DM.
I do not breed in ways that could produce an at-risk puppy (Carrier x Carrier or Carrier x At-risk). Claire is clear and Ferguson is a carrier and so these puppies should be 50% clear and 50% carrier.
It is an easy test and we love data — so everyone is getting tested. The puppies have to be kept apart before doing it, and they cannot have eaten for an hour. I waited until Nova had eaten and then trapped her in a puppy corral…
She promptly escaped and was nursing again. Back to the drawing board.
My next attempt at separation is working well but for the record — no, I do not approve of family separation or kids in cages!
But Lyra just ate and so is happily sleeping and Claire can see her — no trauma around here!
This swabbing thing is going to take all day long.
When I change the bedding, puppies go into a basket with heating disks. I think we have reached capacity…
Have a Happy Sunday!
Evening Photos
While Claire was outside for a quick potty break, Rosebud supervised the current captive. All ten puppies were swabbed for their DM tests!
Perseus and Mirak
Nova
Lyra
We zoomed with the Boise crew so they could meet the puppies — Galen sent me this photo.
Zaniah
Heze and Perseus