Day 3
Everyone did SUPER overnight, everyone gained nicely. Troublemaker Aniston is hulking out, he gained the most. Little stub girl Beals gained 10 grams overnight. Connelly (boy with the spot on his chest) gained 15 grams. Donnelly (boy with no white) gained 17 grams. And long tailed girl Esposito gained 13 grams. Everyone except Beals is over 300 grams now, and she is getting there at 285 grams! With the last litter there were some who gained like wildfire for a bit and then slowed right down, some who were slow and steady, and some who gained in jumps. As long as they’re gaining, that’s what matters! The three slowest gainers will get some extra alone time to nurse today.
Nina is feeling less like she needs to be in with the puppies every minute, she actually came and got in bed with me for a cuddle for a while last night, nice to have my Nina back! She is full of energy and is loving the fact that she can run and play again. She came out to hang out in the living room (right off the puppy room) for a while last night too. Her mama bear mode is coming off high alert now.
I am obsessing about how best to set up the whelping box. I reworked it last night after Nina decided she needed to rearrange things and ended up with a puppy under the bumper bed. So I put the bed UNDER a big towel, put smaller towels and face cloths also underneath at the sides and corners (to hopefully remove any puppy traps), and then tucked the edges of the towel under the whelping box edges. It’s a hassle to arrange when I need to change the top towel (as I do frequently, since Nina still has the normal post-whelp ick), but it hopefully means that Nina can be comfy, the puppies have elevation changes to navigate, and nobody will get stuck anywhere. I took out the pig rails since puppies seemed to be getting wedged under them.
I kept worrying about them being too cold, but yesterday the temperature climbed pretty sharply and all of a sudden I noticed the puppies were all spread out away from each other (you want them in a loose pile, all spread out means they are too warm, and a tight huddle means they are too cold). Vallhunds are very cold-tolerant even as puppies, it seems! The last litter were born in winter and they never used the supplemental heat pad at all (Nina used it as a pillow, though).
Today is the first day of ritual abuse early neurological stimulation to hopefully help the puppies throughout their lives.