How to prepare for the arrival of the pups
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The best way I have found to have a litter of pups is in a baby swimming pool, you can purchase this at your local Wal-mart or K-Mart, get the one that is just the plain baby pool not the one with the slide as you will need as much room as possible. Go out and get two of the baby pools I will say what the second will be used for in a bit. Now that you have gone out and gotten your pools lay the first pool some where that you can see the mother at all times I like to keep it in the living room, I also like to lay it out 3 or 4 days before she is due so that the mother can get comfortable with where she is going to have her pups. Now, you can use many different things for bedding I like to use cedar shavings it smells good and will absorb the fluids during delivery, or you can use shredded newspaper that way the mother can use her instincts of making a bed for her pups ie. Tearing the newspaper up, so it is your choice of what to use but, I recommend either news paper or cedar shavings. To get a good idea of when the pups are coming start taking the females temperature two to three days before the female is due and do this each morning, the normal temperature is 101.3f and twelve to eighteen hours before labor the temperature will drop to 99.5f or below. So once you have seen a temperature drop delivery is coming soon. Some mothers are comfortable with you by her side others are not so if she seems un easy with you there just let her alone and check on her every 30 minutes. Once she has delivered the pups and again all females are different some can deliver as quick as one hour others can take up to 8 hours, change the bedding as soon as she is done. Just get an old blanket and place the pups on it then you can change the bedding. The bedding has been changed and all the pups are doing well, and now mom can rest. This is a very important nutrition time for the mother as what she is eating most of it is going to her pups so I recommend you give her some extra nutrients I recommend AGDT Daily’s , another good thing is to give the mother a booster parvo/distemper shot as this will go into the pups and help boost the mothers natural immune system that she has in her milk so this will help prevent these diseases. Once the puppies have reached 2 weeks old I recommend worming them with Pyrental Pomate because most puppies are born with roundworms the reason for worming at two weeks is to prevent the round worm eggs to pass through the stool, the pups should be wormed at 2 weeks, 4 weeks, 6 weeks and again at 8 weeks this schedule will kill all puppy worms acquired in the uterus, from the milk or from ingesting. Also, at the same time you are de-worming these pups every two weeks give them a straight parvo vaccine at the same time starting at 2 weeks of age. Once the pups start to walk around usually between 3-4 weeks now is where the second pool will come in. Take the second pool you got and flip it upside down so that the bottom is facing you, cut the bottom out of the pool so that it looks like another opening now take this and place it (upside down) with the side you just cut facing you on top of the pool the pups are in this will make a wall so that the pups cannot crawl out and just screw the two pools together by the outside rim this will ensure that the mother will not knock it off nor will the pups. Starting at 5 weeks old is the best time to start trying to wean the pups, unless you have a mother not interested in which case you will start earlier. So lets just go with that everything is going well, and the pups are now 5 weeks old, the way I wean my pups is I use adult dog food not puppy food because puppy food, makes the pups grow to fast and can sometimes cause hip dysplasia and other bone and or joint problems and you want them to grow in a slow and steady rate. A good dog food to use is Exceed which you can purchase at Sam’s Club or Wal-Mart sells the same food packaged under a different name called maximum nutrition, another good high quality food is Abady. I will go into detail later about the qualities of the food.
First, let’s start with Exceed or Maximum Nutrition, since this will be the first time the pups will see food you do not want to make a lot, chances are they are not going to eat it all so take a bowl and put a few handfuls of the food in it and put in enough water to soak it let it sit for about 30 minutes enough for it become like a mash also there is a product called calf maker you can get it at your local feed store and sprinkle a bit of this on to the puppy mash crunch up a few AGDT Daily’s and give it to the pups. With the Abady just take a small handful and soak it and crunch up a few AGDT Daily’s and feed. Just do this with the pups each day and make sure you take mom away while you let the pups eat there food, and within a week or two the pups will be eating regular food and you will no longer have to soak it.
8 WEEKS-12 WEEKS
By, 8 weeks old the pups have now been weaned from the mother, now is that crucial time to start bonding with them. They have all developed there own attitudes. You want the pups to be bold and not afraid of anything and in order to help accomplish this you must socialize and work with the pups, get them use to different surroundings take them to different areas of the yard to play each day, or in different rooms in the house you want to feed off there curiosity. Ostrich bones are a good chew toy for pups or pieces of cow hide, they will be going through teething and this will help with it as chewing on things is what makes there mouth feel better and these are good safe chews for them unlike rawhide, the problem with rawhide chews is that they do not break down and many a dog and pup have gotten rawhide stuck somewhere. If you plan to use cowhide just cut some tiny pieces for the pups to chew. Remember with a puppy everything must be fun don’t get frustrated with them, they are just puppy’s and do not know any better. This is when I like to start with the car rides to get them use to the movement and feel of it. If you are just going down the road to the store take a pup each time start with small trips and move on to longer ones soon the pups will think of the car as fun and something they look forward to. This time period from 8-12 weeks is all play time with a pup no training at this time. On feeding the pup at this time of 8-12 weeks you have two choices you can free feed which is what I like to do or you can feed 3 times a day a morning afternoon and evening feeding. If you plan to free feed the best food mix that I have found is a combo of the Exceed and Abady, mix it up and throw some AGDT daily’s on top and twice a week give them a can of canned food mixed in with it. If you plan on spreading the feeding out to 3 times a day feed the same mix. To purchase the ABADY products go to www.waggintails.com Other foods I feel are good if you choose not to feed these are: Purina, they spend a lot of money researching there foods, IAMS-Eukanuba , Diamond and Bill-Jac, Also, the pups should be given there 8-way shot at 8,10 and 12 weeks, then wormed with Pyrental Pomate at 10 and 12 weeks. Again, you cannot overdose on the 8-way vaccines the reason for giving so many is you never know what one will actually immunize your pups.
12-16 weeks
At 12 weeks is about the time I like to start putting a collar on a pup to get them use to the feeling, most pups are irritated by the collar at first and scratch at it. By putting a collar on the pup(s) for about 10-15 minutes a few times a week will solve the problem of the animal getting irritated, you want to cause as little stress to the pup(s) as possible. That’s why as I said before and this still holds true at this time period everything must be fun no stress, and no demands on the pup(s) this is just bonding time for you guys. Going for rides, playing with toys that kind of stuff. If you would like to do some exercising tug of war is a good fun game that will work the pup and also a good bonding game. Do not pull to hard because you do not want to damage any teeth, and don’t try to make the pup hang on off the ground you are doing more harm then good. Use a piece of cowhide as the tug toy just kind of wave it around until it catches there attention now some pups will not be interested this is ok not all will be, a good trick to a pup that is scared of this is to play a game make him think that the cowhide is scared of him meaning, connect the cowhide to a piece of string and put it on the ground now lets say the pup is afraid, just leave it there the curiosity will kill him he will have to look just when he goes to move toward the cowhide slowly pull it away from him every step he moves toward it keep doing this he will eventually think this thing is afraid of me and he will learn to enjoy the game. Make sure it is fun let the pup(s) win some times and sometimes you will this will build there confidence, like they have accomplished something and when you are done playing reward them with praise or a treat-both is great!16 weeks is now time for there first Rabies shot, now remember this has to be done by a licensed vet! This will be a 1 year only on the Rabies after this they can get there 3 year Rabies shot. We now will be spacing the 8-way shot out because there immune system is much stronger now so give the 8-way at 16 weeks only. Ok, let’s talk about the benefits of the foods I have recommended- Exceed/Maximum Nutrition-same food, this dog food is one of the best commercial type foods I have found it is cheap and the ingredients exceeds the other commercial foods, highly digestible and the first ingredient is real chicken. A good all around dog food that can be fed through all life stages so it is beneficial to pups as well as adults Exceed is backed by AAFCO which is the Association of American Feed Officals they have two standards to figure out how good the food is one is by calculating all the nutrients dogs are known to require to maintain health and fitness the other standard is a feeding test to show your dogs can live and thrive on the product and it must tell you on the label what standard they use, the best is the actual feeding method, if the food you have chosen uses the latter method through calculating I would recommend not purchasing it. The second is Abady, now this food is on the expensive side because it is a premium food made with human grade products and also uses the AAFCO feeding tests, Abady is not kibble type food, it looks more like brown sugar, the main ingredient is Menhaden fish one of their fat source’s is flax seed oil and other good high quality fats. It is made with the intention dogs are carnivorous.