Happy Halloween

These little guys are getting to realize they are not alone and learning to explore the world around them. Isn't that a little growl and bark? Love the little tail wag.

Morning Milk Bar

The Milk Bar opens at about 7AM and then there is some activity and the best part, cuddling and sleeping. Cheeto wakes me up to take the X-Pen away from the pool. They are at the point where one pup could crawl over another pup and get out of the pool so to solve that they are penned in at night. Once one pup does escape the pool is retired and they are in an X-pen only. Cheeto decides when it is time for breakfast and clean up. She has been spending most of her non-feeding time out of the pen and lying on a bed next to them and watching so this was a natural step. They do seem to have a night and day schedule with their last feeding about midnight and then they sleep till Cheeto wakes them up. They are all 4 pounds or more, big and active, and she prefers a cooler more quiet spot for rest now. Everyone's eyes are open and they are beginning to interact with each other and things in their environment. Mr. Blue actually looked like he was looking at the figures on the pool today. More examples of that tomorrow.

Little Ms. White

Ms. White, sleeping on the scale, is the smallest at 3.85 pounds. We have had to switch to a real baby scale now. They still usually climb all over it so it is nice when a pup decides to sleep on the scale. Yellow is the only one whose eyes are not open but she is peaking through little slits. I am guessing by tomorrow they will be open. You can tell their ears are opening by the way they responds to sounds in the room. The next few day we will be careful not to make loud noises as they get used to their world around them.

Puppy Visits Start Nov. 3

Puppy visits will start on Saturday November 3 and continue until November 25th. The puppies will make their trip to PAWS on the 26th. Puppies visits, although they are fun, serve to socialize the pups. They meet different people and are handled and played with by people of all ages and sizes. If you would like to be part of the fun email me privately at cheetobreeder@yahoo.com

I schedule no more than 2 visits a day so if you are interested please reserve a time slot. Thanks in advance for helping get these puppies off to a good start.


This is how we contain them now. They have out grown the warming box and are in two laundry baskets.

Mr. Blue Wobbly Walks

Happy 2 week birthday to the E puppies. This is Mr. Blue attempting a walk. His eyes are opening and so are some of the others. Most are attempting to walk and trying to sit. The changes are amazing.

Eyes Are Opening

Yesterday evening when I picked up Rose and looked at her she looked back at me! What a sweet experience. Does she see me? This video was taken the next day and it really seems like she is looking around. It is not crisp because the room light was off and only an under counter light was on. All of them are in some stages of opening their eyes. Sometimes one eye opens and then the other and sometimes they are half open for a day. Rose's will open more fully in the next day or so. She was the first born.

Day 13 Getting to be More Like Puppies

They are starting to use their back legs. Mr. Red gets a nudge from Mom but he is putting those legs under him now. The same for Ms. Yellow. Hard to believe, but in the next few days they will be wobbly walking even though it looks like they will never be able to lift up those bellies. They are going longer between feedings and there is a real chance for Cheeto to sleep at night. She was up at 5:30 and they were very content with sleeping even through her nudging and cleaning for another hour.

Day 12 Touching

The last litter did this exact same thing. They would line up outside the fleece and arrange themselves so they just touched each other. Sometimes they are sleeping under the fleece or under a another piece of fleece in the pool and sometimes they are just lying in the middle, but then there is this arrangement. Comfort in knowing someone is there? You can see 4 of the 7 arranged here. They still can't see or hear but we know they can smell and can feel touch.

Day 11 And Growing

If you scroll down and compare this box of puppies with the one on Day 4 you can really see how they have grown. Soon they will out grow this box and will have to be in a laundry basket while their area is being cleaned. They are almost out growing this kitchen scale too. This is at about 8AM and they have been just fed and some go to sleep on the scale. Their eyes and ears are still closed, but soon they will be looking back at us. We are doing the neural simulations each day and the pups are handled by all of us in the family. They seem to love it and sometimes we even get a tail wag when we touch them.

Day 10 Got Milk?

Gotta love these guys.

Day 9 Puppy Dog Tails...

This is just the sweetest image for me - these wagging little tails all lined up at the milk bar. The sounds that go along with it is are so precious. This can really be an active time but it seems like as soon as I grab the camera the tails stop. I am still trying to get a milk mustache. There are tons of them till I have the camera in my hand!

Day 8 Activity Times

I know they can't hear or see but amazingly they can coordinate their activity times. It is usually in the evening and they all start in motion, voices raised and just having a ball. Sometimes it is just after they have nursed when you would expect sleeping but no - they burst into puppy songs and slithering with lots more push offs with those back paws. This is why the fleece is important - it gives them something to push against so they can get to the wobbly walking stage.

The puppies are week old today and all have doubled their weight and are all over 2 pounds. Cheeto is eating and drinking and obviously making lots of milk. When you compare them to the video in Day 3 you can really see how much they have grown.

Day 7 Cleaning the Pups

If your stomach is a little weak you might want to skip this post, but I think it is an amazing thing that the doggie mom's do for their pups. For the first 2 weeks the pups cannot eliminate on their own so the mom must stimulate them with her tongue to do so and then she eats it. Yup. That is why the white fleece always looks so clean. Cheeto is great at it as you can see. She actually smells their little butts and then will lick some or go on to the next. The same goes for urine. I do clean the fleece but is it not because the puppies visibly soil it. More information than you wanted to know?

I love their little paws. When they were born they were all pink and now they have started to get pigment.

Day 6 Sleepy "E" Puppies

To grow as big as these guys are growing they do a lot of sleeping. Mostly they are in contact with one another but not always. Yesterday they were hot and they let us know it my making noise and spreading out. I turned the air conditioning on and it went down 2 degrees and they were quiet. Anne (also know an ice cream Anne) took these shots when she stopped by to visit the pups and of course Cheeto who was so excited to see her. Today was nail day. These shots were taken before they were cut and you can see they need to be done. Not my favorite job and gosh there are 112 of them to cut. What I have found works best is a Red Cross baby nail cutter with a magnifying lens. I cut them right after they have nursed so they are a little sleepy and can cooperate better. PAWS has informed us these will be the "E" puppies so each name will begin with the letter E. Emma? or Ernie? Maybe an Elmo? It will be fun to hear the names people will choose. PAWS gives a list to the puppy raisers from which they make their choice. That's how they usually get their name.

Day 5 Twice Daily Weights

Rose and Orange are sleeping and comfortably fitting on the Weight Watchers scale. This won't be for long because they will shortly be too big for the bowl. They will graduate to the intermediate scale, also a kitchen scale, and then finally a baby scale I got on EBay. I have learned to let them nurse first then they get sleepy and I grab each to weight them while they are not interested in climbing out. They are growing like crazy with most them between 26 and 28 ounces, White is catching up quickly. Bob, my helpful husband, set up a table and I plug in the weights each day and can see how much each have gained and then view the whole litter in a graph. A little overboard but we love data. The 3 who gained the least the day before get to nurse first. They are taken out of the warming box first, and I just make sure they get a chance that day and they are almost always the big gainers the next day.

Day 4 Daily Routine

The puppies get weighed twice a day. Once at about 8AM and then again about 7PM. They get taken out of the pool, yes, that is a kiddie pool where they eat and sleep now and get weighed and put in the warming box. This is an inside view of the noisy box. It's the plastic box sitting on the counter behind Cheeto. They all fit in there now and it is heated with a heating pad under the towel. We are always monitoring temperature from the room to the pool and the box. That crazy thing you will see in some of the pictures that looks like a silver egg is actually a thermometer. Cheeto patiently waits while the puppies are in the box and the pool gets exchanged for a clean one and a new clean fleece is put in the bottom. When she first has the puppies she is upset when they are in the box and away from her but today she is getting the routine down and is patiently sitting while everything including the floor is washed. The whole routine takes about an hour.

Sometimes the video takes time to buffer. I will hope to post once a day so for those of you who like to check in on these guys. That will be my plan. If you have any questions that you would like to ask and not post them in the comments you can email me at cheetobreeder@yahoo.com

Enjoy

Day 3 Army Crawls

This is their mode of transportation - army crawl and pull ups with their front paws. It is amazing how they can slither around with this method. They cannot see or hear and find Momma Cheeto, some of the time, with their nose which is working for them. Some get very frustrated if they are far away and decide they are hungry. If you put them close to her this is what they can do. It is so fascinating. Today we start the neurological stimulation exercises. (http://www.breedingbetterdogs.com/articles.html) It gives them some experiences of sensations of touch and cold and position that are believed to simulate neural development. I did it with the last litter also. It is something Paws asks us to do. Just for your information all camera shots are taken with natural lighting so that is why sometimes they are dark . Even thought their eyes are closed we do not want to stress them. Momma Cheeto is doing great. We are spoiling her again. She is eating in the pool with her pups - chow with cottage cheese. She is eating 6 cups a day now and this will increase to 12 cups when they are older.

Puppies Day 2

Lunch time Day 2. Everyone is growing and so therefore everyone is eating. Lots. Yellow is resting after filling her belly. The tails are getting in position. The picture of the tails from the O litter is probably my favorite. Thanks everyone for the comments. It is so amazing to watch them. Just thought you would like to have an real look at these little one.

PUPPIES ARE HERE!!

They came a little early but when you see their size it was probably a good thing. The first born was Rose at 2:01 AM and she weighted 16.2 ounces. She is a real sweetheart. She started to nurse and got the whole process going. The next born was Miss Yellow at 15.6 ounces at 2:26 AM and she was quickly follow by Mr Blue, 16.8 ounces at 2:53 AM. Miss Purple came next at 3:05 AM, 16.2 ounces and then Miss Orange, had to have an orange in October. She weighed 16.3 ounces and appeared at 4:05 AM. Next Mr. Red at 16.4 ounces made his appearance at 4:18 AM and Miss White appeared at 5:07 AM and was the smallest at 13 ounces. Then we had a delay. The last pup was the largest at 17.9 ounces and was a male who was stillborn. It is hard to loose one but my great whelper helpers tried very hard to revive him. Thanks Teresa, Bonnie, Bob and Anne for coming out in the middle of the night to lend a hand and heart to help these guys get a great start. Because the pups came so fast it was really nice to have so many experienced hands. Yes, Cheeto got her ice cream and loved every bite. We will all get a good night's sleep tonight!

There are 8 Puppies

There are 8 little pups in these x-rays. If you click on the picture and you can count them. Cheeto is doing great. She has gained the same that she did last time, 17 pounds. I think she is ready to be done. She is definitely happy the weather has turned cooler. The kitchen is ready and as you can see her body is ready for puppies. She has done great again. If you feel her belly it is like there is a party in there - puppies kicking and moving all over the place. Anyone what to guess how many boys and how many girls and what color?