MONDAY 19th April: The pups eyes are getting ready to open in the next few days, Its really noticeable with Swipper and Dora as their left eye is white with black eye liner and when relaxed the eye liner is now a thick line but if I stroke my fingers across their eyebrows they screw up their eyes so that only a very thin line appears. They look as if they are peering at you, as when they lift their heads and look towards the light, ofr my face, they screw up their faces. (Maybe its just my face that has that effect on them!)
SATURDAY 17th April,ONE WEEK OLD: The pups are a week old today and they celebrated by having their photos taken. I also noted their weight. Tico now weights the heaviest at 1lb 2.5 oz. Dora is dinky the lightest puppy I have ever had and only weights a mere 14.5oz, Swipper is 1lb 2 oz, Deigo, 1lb 1/2 oz, Boots 1lb 1.5oz, and Benny 1lb 2oz, in totally they are much lighter then my other litters but then Trio is feeding six and not four puppies, like her mother. As the puppies all feel fat, happy and contented, and are very active, I have no worries. The birth weights on puppies does not seem to have any relevance on the size that the mature dogs get, its just a gauge for us humans to make sure that there is a weight gain.
The pups noses and lips are slowly turning black, in fact when I photographed the pups I had a problem working out which photo was Swipper and which was Dora, but by checking the markings on their nose it was easy to see who was who.
The pups are now lifting their heads more and they now have little necks. Their stop is also developing, so they are starting to look more like puppies and less like guinea pigs. I've noticed them starting to stand on their legs instead of just doing commando crawls along the vet bed. Trio is often seen now feeding the pups from a sitting position, this is one way a bitch encourages the pups to stretch and use their necks and legs to get to their milk, in a few weeks time she will start to feed them in a stand position. After the pups have suckled for a few moments and done their excercise's she lies down and allows them sup in comfort.