First two boys born 15 minutes apart, Blue is Lucky and Green Yoyo.

Unusually, but thankfully they were not born during the night

The puppies at two days old, Light blue is Spark, Yellow is Bruno,Green is Yoyo, Blue is Lucky, Purple is Freckles and the two puppies hidden under the pile are Pink, Pepper and Orange who is Tiger.

Do you know which film their names are taken from?

Answer to come later.

31st January, each day the puppies are weighed to make sure that they are growing. We expect them to put on about 10 percent of their body weight each day.  

Peppers birth weight was 423 grams.

This is Yoyo, he is trying to find a nipple in the fluffy cushion. His sences are so limited that he can't tell the difference between his mums coat and the long cushion fabric. He is a lean mean eating machine having gained over 100 grams a day for the last three days. This is double what is expected right now weighing in at 774 grams. Little Tiger is 552 grams however he is healthy and strong and gaining his 10 percent body weight each day.

Elsa is spending a little more time away from the puppies now but still prefers to be in the whelping box most of the day even when the puppies are sleeping. Each day she takes more time for herself.

3rd February - Family resemblence

The puppies at 5 days old, if you look closely you can see the little white spots on their heads inherited from the Wheatcroft studs. It shows up more on the coloured puppies but they all tend to have it.

4th February - Hide and seek

Imagine my surprise when I checked on the puppies and there was only three. After a slight panic I lifted the bedding to find Elsa had covered them all up. She doesn't like it warm and we have to keep the bedroom at 30 degree for the puppies. She constantly digs up the whelping box trying to find the cool floor, however I often find the puppies on the floor and she is sat on the heat mat.

5th February - Tummy troubles

We don't get very much sleep at night for the first three weeks of the puppies life. They appear to get colic and we have to rub their tummies to comfort them.

This is Yoyo,who at the moment is wanting a lot of attention, sleeping on my pillow after a good tummy rub.

He is also a record breaker reaching 1kg at 7 days. Our biggest puppy ever!

6th February - An arm full of puppies

Neeve comes up to help me with the puppies most days, she is a great puppy cuddler and is a godsend when I am not feeling well like this week. I don't think she will be able to cuddle all the puppies at once for much longer.

8th February - 7 in a bed

It's hard to believe that the puppies are only 10 days old yet they now fill the bed that I use to put them in when I am chaning their bed. Most of them have doubled their birth weight with Tiger almost trebling his. Tiger is still then most forward of the pupies and his eye are now wide open although his sibblings are yet to open theirs.

10th February - Mummy cuddles

Elsa spends much more time sleeping outside the whelping box now. The puppies are tend to spread themselves a out the box to sleep then line up to feed. We ensure that all the puppies get to feed from the more popular nipples in this way we reduce the chance of their being dominent puppies.

There is a mix of colours in the litter, although there is not very much difference in the two girls there are 2 cream boys and 3 that are developing colour like their dad.

10th February - A spoon full of sugar?

Puddles not quite liking his worming medicine. 

The puppies get wormed at 11, 12 and 13 days when they have to take a powdery liquid. They are very funny to watch when they take it. They will be wormed again at 5weeks and 8 weeks but they are much better at spitting it out then so we give them a tablet instead of liquid.

11th February - Morning cuddles

The puppies will stay in the whelping box at the side of our bed until they are three weeks old. We take it in turns to supevise them and ensure Elsa doesn't lay on anyone. It's always a pleasure on a morning to have a cuddle with them before the start of another busy day.

12th February - Big bro is staying

I love it when my puppies come to stay for their holidays and it is always amazing to see how much they grow in a relatively short time.

This is Albie who was the smallest puppy in his litter and he had to go to the vet as he got water on his lungs at birth. At ninemonths old he is a strapping lad. Seen here with Yoyo.

Two week weigh in!

We had a family birthday this weekend so the puppies weigh in was a little late. Everyone has grown well but Pepper, Bruno and Tiger have not ut on as much weightas I would like so I am going to top them up with a bottle for a few days. 

There are 7 puppies in the bed but I can only count 6 they are so big now they have to lie on top of each other. 

Pile of Puppies - 19 days

The puppie are still not sleeping very much at night and it feels like they do all of their squeeling once the lights go out. Altough it's exhauting it is also a priviledge, especially when they decide to make themselves into a pile right next to me.

Nursery school - 21 days

The puppies are learning lots of new things as they begin to play. The nw puppy owners came to visit this weekend and with such a bust time they caught up on some growing sleep in between the visitors.

We use lots of bright colours to attract the puppies to look aound and to help them with the process of focusing their eyes. 

Milkbar - 3 weeks onwards

The puppies always seam too little to stand to feed when mum decides it's time. they soon learn what to do but I have to bribe Elsa to lie down so that the little ones get a chance.

Pepper -

We are just starting to learn about each individual puppy as they begin to play their personalities also develop.  Pepper is showing a cute disposition and singular determination, even though she is now the smallest of the puppies.

Weaning - From three weeks

The weening process starts at three weeks when we introduce the puppies to raw mince which we hand feed. Once the puppies have got the hang of this we introduce Healthy Options kibble which is soaked in puppy milk to make a porridge. At first we add the raw mince to this however this is then replaced  by raw tripe which will form part of their diet up until around six months of age when it can be dropped.

Degrees of success - from three weeks

Whilst the puppies are learning to eat from a dish they become very sticky. This is Tiger his hair slll jelled up with sticky porridge.

Hide and seek - Socilaisation period

Boxes are an important tool during the socialisation period. One of the aims is to stress the puppies only slightly to strengthen their personalities. This upturned box gives us that opportunity. The puppies learn to, run though it hide under it and when the fun is over it makes for a great sleeping place.

Problems problems problems - Socialisation Period

The same box has now been turned the other way up to make a new problem. Climb out of the box, it is just low enoght for the puppies to climb out. On this occation that was all but Pepper who stood and screamed at top pelt until she was rescued. Never mind next time she will make it!

Food guarding first steps

Duck joins in the feeding time and makes lots of noise as a first step of the puppies learning to share the space aroud their bowls.

Daily Grooming

Each day we groom the puppies, look in their ears, mouth and tummy getting them ready for future handling at the vets and for grooming. Lucky enjoys being brushed.

Playtime

Lucky loves to play with Mr Elephant. The puppies are teething and chewing on the toys we provide helps them learn to chew on the right things!