Puppies: week 2

WHAgFarm

14 Feb

Time really does fly, the puppies are now into the second week. As well as day by day getting bigger and bigger, it is now the turning point in the puppies’ development - it is when their eyes start to open!

While mum will remain important for many weeks to come, having eyes open represents the first step toward independent existence and exploring the big world out there. Nothing major in this second week. Perhaps a few steps away from the bed. Perhaps a bit of an explore around the puppy pen.

For mum also things start to shift. The almost total commitment of the first week starts to ease. Now she is happier to leave them at times to have a bit of a break, always ready to come back if needed. Puppies are generally quiet and relaxed as long as two key criteria are met:

They like to be fed.
They like to be warm.

For Zinny, not much encouragement was needed to keep her feeding them well. The important thing is to make sure she had plenty of fuel to produce all the milk. A well balanced, good quality food is always important. All the more so with having puppies to feed.

The owners were also very diligent at making sure the puppies quarters were at an ambient temperature for them. Puppies need to be kept somewhat warmer than mum. Mum also needs to have space to cool down.

The individual characters were starting to develop. The bigger, bolder characters stood out most. Then there were the cute ones. The comics. The shy ones. As the weeks go by the characters will get clearer. Similarly the dynamics and interplay will start to come through.

The flea problem of the first week had been brought under control without the need to chemicals. Continued diligence is needed to help ensure that nothing gets out of hand.

With so many changes happening and the puppies about to start their exploring, journalling and keep records of their progress is such a useful thing to do. The regular weighing continues to help keep the progress as even as possible. To hold back the greedy ones and give the smaller ones a bit extra is ever so helpful.

As they head toward their third week they will be getting bigger and bolder.