Week Four for the YA's

We've passed the 4 week marker for the Bowie Litter, and they're mostly right on schedule.  They've moved downstairs into the living room full time, and graduated out of their baby pools into the 'big' whelping kennel (first pic below).

Halloween Jack has hit a bit of a hiccup along the way - not seeming to develop quite as quickly as the others.  He's a bit unsteady on his feet and seems to tire very quickly.  We're keeping a close eye on him to see if he improves, as well as doing some nutritional supplementation and some physical therapy exercises.  He is able to walk, and is game to play, but gets tired easily and isn't as steady on his feet as the others.  He doesn't know he's any different from his siblings, but they definitely take advantage of him sometimes!

Litter box training is well under way, as you can see from the pics, and is going well!  

Feeding a raw diet to a bunch of tiny pups has been an adventure.  They're mostly still eating very finely ground chicken backs, and still nursing from mama Spicy; but they've begun to explore chewing up bigger pieces of chicken necks this week as well.  We've also introduced a bit of chicken liver, which they seem to like just fine.  They're also getting a bit of soaked, premium dog food overnight to tide them over, but they're not very interested in it - who would be, after eating yummy raw food all day?

The whelping kennel set up; just before introducing the pups - it'll never be this organized/spotless again!  :)

Diamond Dog, sniffing some wings and necks.

Blue Jean - always the first at everything!  First to open her eyes, first to walk, first to pull a whole chicken neck out of the bowl and start chowing down.

You can see just how big they've gotten - but Mama Spicy continues to be patient and nurse.

Ricochet (foreground), Sleeping Blue Jean, with Halloween Jack and Major Tom in the background.

More milkbar time.  

From left to right:

Blue Jean (creative, upside-down nursing), Halloween Jack, Little China Girl, Ricochet, and Major Tom.

Major Tom and Halloween Jack.

Exhausted pups - front & center:  Rebel Rebel

Literally pouring out of their sleepy-time crate.

How many pups can you fit in one small crate?

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And finally, we got graced with yet another breath-taking sunset last night:

Bowie Litter Pupdate - three weeks

The Young Americans continue to thrive.  We've passed the 3 week mark, and they're starting to walk, play, and are eating some real food, and of course, doing lots of sleeping and growing.  Mostly sleeping and growing!

They had their first taste of ground chicken backs, and they LOVED it.  We introduced the adult whippets to a raw, natural diet in August, and decided to continue this healthy trend with the pups.  This is our first litter ever weaned to raw food, and it's gone very smoothly so far.  For more info. on raw feeding, check out our page about it on the website:  http://www.horsetoothwhippets.com/Raw-diet-info.html

LOTS of sleeping.

Some milkbar time for Blue Jean, Rebel Rebel, & Major Tom, while Diamond Dog naps a bit.

We had a great sunset sky here on Sunday night....

Dinner time!  First taste of raw, solid food.

"Nom, nom, nom, nom....."

Full bellies = sleepy puppies!

Mama Spicy is pretty sure she should eat any leftovers - keeping the whelping pool nice and clean.

Getting in on the act - supervising from outside the puppy kennel:

Uncle Buck (kitty), Bella (upper bunk), Grandma Polliwog (lower bunk), and a bit of Lizzie.

 

The pup's Aunt Lychee, soaking up some sun.

'Honorary Aunt' Lizzie.  She loves pups and helps raise every litter.  She's itching to get in the pen and start helping - she can't understand why Spicy wants to keep the pups all to herself.

'Uncle Buck'

Graduating to the big puppy feeder bowl....and chowing down!

Clockwise from bottom left:

Diamond Dog, Ricochet, Ziggy Stardust, Major Tom, Blue Jean, Halloween Jack, Little China Girl, Rebel Rebel

Bowie Litter - day 16

Just popping in with one more pupdate on The Young Americans before it's back to work tomorrow. 

Almost everyone's eyes are open, and we're beginning to have some 'play' behavior (chewing each other, wagging tails)...starting to become little dogs already!

Puppy pile - Rebel Rebel, Diamond Dog, Ziggy Stardust, Blue Jean

Mom and the gang.

Blue Jean

Diamond Dog and Ziggy Stardust

Little China Girl and Ricochet

Halloween Jack and Rebel Rebel

Creative nursing?  Nursing Yoga?

Bowie Litter - 2 weeks old, plus Past pup update/brags

We've made it to the 2 week mark with The Young Americans, and they continue to thrive.  They moved into their much larger puppy pool today, as they've already outgrown the small puppy pool - leaving no room for mama Spicy when they spread out!

Some fun updates:

Diamond Dog broke the record for largest puppy at that particular age on day 12, weighing in at 997 grams!  (She breaks previous heavyweight champ, Max Zorin's record from 2.5 years ago.)  She spends most of her time sleeping and growing it seems!

Rebel Rebel has proven us wrong on her color - she's actually brindle, not red!  (The pups' colors often change drastically from when they're born, with patterns and masks, and richness of shade changing and clearing as they grow.  She's got 2 or 3 brindle stripes - on her right cheekbone - making her officially a brindle, not a red....and bringing the numbers to 5 brindles, 3 reds.  Rebel Rebel remains the smallest pup at 765 grams (still slightly above average for this age).

Blue Jean is the first to have her eyes completely open.  The rest have the inner corners cracking open, all right on schedule, but she's been wide-eyed since yesterday morning.  She's a super snuggler and even already gives kisses.  She weighs in at 870 grams.

Major Tom gives up the heavyweight title to sister Diamond Dog, but is still the second- biggest pup right now at 934 grams.  He has also proven to be a super snuggler.  He's going to be very striking with his all-white body and super-dark-brindled head.

Halloween Jack is our super 'talker.'  This entire litter is loquacious, but Jack takes the prize - talking about it when he gets picked up, talking about it when he's nursing, talking about when he's getting squished by his bigger siblings.  He's got a lot to say about life.  He weighs in at 773 grams, and is the second-smallest pup right now.

Ziggy Stardust and Halloween Jack seem to really be buddies.  They are often together - napping, nursing, etc.  They seem to be on the same wavelength most of the time.  Ziggy weighs in at 842 grams.  His distinguishing marking is that his blaze goes all the way through his head patches, making him easy to pick out.

Little China Girl, who started out as one of the littler pups, is catching up fast!  She's at 887 grams, and is easy to confuse with Major Tom, if you can't see her side & elbow patches.  She's also got lovely dark brindling on her head patches, and great dark masking as well right now.

Ricochet is aptly named, as she's our little bullet....she doesn't have her eyes open yet, but she is already really trying to walk!  We caught a whole string of stop-action shots of her in the new big pool, determined to find her mom.  It's tempting to just pick up a pup and put them with mom, but I let her work out those little muscles and her brain, and do the work and find her.  It was quite a journey, but she did it!  She weighs in at 909 grams.

And on to the pics:

These first four pics are from day 7 for the pups, still in their small pool...they've grown and changed so much in just seven days!

The gang's all here.  From front/left to back/right:

Major Tom, Diamond Dog, Blue Jean, Ricochet, Ziggy Stardust, Halloween Jack, Little China Girl, Rebel Rebel

Major Tom - enjoying the heating pad a bit.

Puppy explosion.

Rebel Rebel and a bit of Halloween Jack and China Girl

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And now the move to the big pool this morning:

Mama Spicy and Blue Jean

All spread out!  

Ziggy Stardust & Halloween Jack on the left; then Little China Girl, Major Tom, Diamond Dog and  Ricochet; and Rebel Rebel in the center.

So much more room!

Rebel Rebel and Little China Girl, with a bit of Diamond Dog.

Ricochet - on the move....

Best buddies - Ziggy (left) and Jack (right)

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Ricochet's Journey

"Where's my mama?"

"Maybe over here..."

"Nope.  Must be the other direction..."

"Oh wait.  What was I doing again?"

"This walking stuff is hard!"

"Oh.  I think I can smell her..."

"Yep.  Definitely can smell her."

"Mama?"

"Mama!"

"Hi, Mom!"

Meanwhile...back in the 'sleeping section' of the pool...

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Happy Spicy - I think she's digging all that space.

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We've also got a couple of past puppy pupdate pics:

Misu (HT Tiramisu Frangelico) - sporting her ribbon and her now-official title of the first whippet in history to earn the APDT Rally Champion Excellent!

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Wilson the volleyball, and ...well, Wilson  (HT Wilson J. Castaway)