First Day Without a Bottle

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How sweet is this? Asleep at the “table.”

I can’t get enough of pink toes and tummys

This was our first full day without any bottle supplements and I am happy to report everyone is still gaining. Of course I intervene a bit by giving the tiniest ones first pick of the fullest nipples before letting the big brothers into the “kitchen.”

Newborns are not able to control their bladders yet.  .
Maxi is a good mother. She keeps her puppies clean which, in turn, stimulates them to urinate and deficate.

Puppies Are Thriving

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We have been on a pretty exhausting routine. Up every three hours to make sure our tiny puppies get their nourishment. They are not too crazy about taking a bottle but do. I am relieved for that. Guess what, I’m not too crazy about waking up three times during the night. I can happily report that this afternoon it was apparent the puppies were gaining nicely on their own. All have gained almost 25% of their birth weight which is terrific and I can get a full night’s sleep tonight.

Maxi has decided that sometimes it is easier to nurse her

babies in a sitting position. Meanwhile, our one year old, Marli, has decided her big-sister job is to keep the clean towels warm!

I’ll take her to the Monroe Dog Show tomorrow where she will get her eyes CERF certified and will get tons of special attention from me and my friends in the Havanese Show World!

Not Such a Good Day

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Today was one of the most difficult days I’ve had in breeding. I certainly never expected Maxi to deliver ten puppies and knowing how small four of them were, I can honestly say I did not expect them all to survive. Nor was I ready to lose two of them, which I did. Mother Nature’s way, they say.
Still, I was very sad. They now have a place together in my back flower garden and I will focus on the other two preemies while tending to the six stronger ones so they can thrive.

Daughter, Jenny, trying to keep one of the preemies warm. We lost this little guy.

We’re Back!

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Back to the blog I started a few years back with an earlier litter. I had transplanted it to my website that I create with my iWeb program on my MacBook. Unfortunately Apple decided it didn’t want to be in the website hosting business anymore and the blog portion of my site won’t work. There are more than one ways to skin a cat, right?

Anyway, my Havanese dog, Maxi, whelped her first litter of puppies five days early on July 3. Ten boys! Four of the pups were premature. Oddly, dogs can conceive puppies on several different days during their heat cycle as long as their eggs are still viable. Once released, the eggs remain fertile for up to 48 hours. However, not all eggs are necessarily released at the same time. So puppies conceived with the first eggs could easily be several days older than the ones conceived with eggs released a few days later.

This was likely the case in Maxi’s breeding. Her puppies’ birth weights ranged from 80 grams to 180! Quite a disparity. Four were under 90 grams which is definitely on the preemie side of the coin and dangerously underweight. We lost two, sadly. But I consider the other two to be my miracle babies.

To complicate things further the first puppy was born totally lifeless. Maxi was not interested in removing the sack or cutting the cord so I did both then went to work trying to revive him. 45 minutes later after warming his very cool body and rubbing him as vigorously as I dared with a soft terrycloth towel, he let out two cries! I knew we were on our way! Meanwhile Maxi delivered three more puppies. We both had our hands full. I am happy to report that that first puppy is not only thriving but is the largest in the litter!