Adventures in Puppy Land, Part Three

The Puppies Are Three Weeks Old!

On Sunday (Valentine's Day) the puppies turned three weeks old. There have been a lot of changes in the wee furballs since my last post! If you haven't read Part One - A Puppy or Two or Adventures in Puppy Land, Part Two, I suggest you read them first. ;)

One morning I noticed a wee bit of blood on the towel at the bottom of the puppies' bed. I picked up each puppy and checked it over for any wounds. Upon examining Damia, I noticed that her peri area was very swollen, red and raw. I immediately removed her from the other pups and made her a bed in a laundry basket. After I applied some Bridine to the open area, Damia went to sleep quite peacefully.

The reason that she was so swollen and raw in that area was that Alcyone, Hyperion and Helios were using her wee nou-nou as a teat when they were hungry. Now, after a week of Bridine treatments, careful monitoring of the pups during play and feeding times, and keeping them separate for sleep times, I am happy to tell you that Damia's peri area has pretty well healed up and returned to normal. Yes, the other pups do still try and suckle on her, but I move them away from her as soon as I catch them at it. Damia is also learning to keep her behind firmly on the ground when one of the other pups try to worm their way under her. I am sure that the pups will grow out of the suckling stage quite soon, then Damia will be safe from the wee terrors. ;)

Why am I so sure that the puppies will be out of the suckling stage soon? Because they all have developed little teeth in their wee mouths. They have wee sharp back teeth and a few pups have other front teeth poking through. Even Apollo has teeth now. I am quite surprised that Sheba is still allowing him to feed off of her, but I have yet to hear or see her nudge him away, so I guess he isn't biting her yet.

It is quite comical to watch the pups at play as they open their mouths to "play bite" each other and try to show who is alpha of the pack. Little Alcyone seems to be the toughie of the bunch, while Apollo just lets the pups crawl all over him, like a good "big" brother should. ;) The little furballs will soon learn however, that I am the Alpha Bitch in the pack. LOL

There is an adventurer in the pack. I am sure that Damia is a reincarnation of some great and fearless explorer. The little vixen has managed to escape from the laundry basket and went travelling all over the room. She finally ended up stuck in a corner between the wall and humidifier, crying for help. I removed her from there and plunked her down in the play area with her stuffed monster to play with. I switched the laundry basket for a tote bin and now Damia will have difficulty escaping form there. (I told you I am the Alpha Bitch). LOL

Another place that Damia has managed to free herself from is the "playpen". I normally put the four pups in there to eat and play and so that they are contained in one spot and I don't have to worry about them while I go and warm their bottles. Well, little Miss Damia decided not to eat her puppy mush and that, while I was in the bathroom filling the sink with hot water to heat their bottles, she would just crawl over the edge of the box and go travelling. I returned to the room after being gone not even three minutes and there was Damia, sitting by the gate in the doorway looking so very proud of herself as she looked up at me with the cutest little face. How could I give her heck? LOL Unfortunately, now she is trying to convince her siblings to "crawl over the wall" and join her in freedom.

The pups are now eating puppy mush three times a day. If you need a recipe for puppy mush (you can even use it for older dogs that have poor teeth and gums) here you go.
Puppy Mush
Grind up a whole bunch of dry puppy food ahead of time.

• 1/3 cup of hot puppy formula (I zap it in the microwave on high for one minute)
• 1/2 cup of ground dry puppy food
• Hot water

Add the ground dry puppy food to the hot puppy formula and mix it well.
Let mixture stand a few minutes until the puppy food has expanded and absorbed all of the formula
Mix in the hot water a little at a time until the mixture resembles baby cereal.
When the puppy mush is cool enough, let the puppies at it!

Yesterday, I decided to try Apollo on the puppy mush. I removed Sheba from the room and put the mush bowl on the floor outside of his "cave". Apollo timidly licked a wee bit and found that he quite enjoyed the taste and went on the eat more of the mush.

I'm not sure what Sheba thought of the whole thing, but when she was allowed back in, she promptly ate the rest of Apollo's mush, cleaned up her pup and then took him into the "cave" to nurse.

One wee problem that we are having with Sheba is that she will not allow the other pups to play with Apollo. I think that we have that problem solved. :)

During playtime, we remove Sheba from the room and close the door. Then the four "orphaned" pups are let loose in the play area outside of the "cave" where Sheba and Apollo dwell. Before too long, either Apollo is out of the cave and checking out his siblings, or the puppies are inside the closet and climbing all over him. After playtime, we return Apollo to his lair, put the pups into their beds and when Sheba is let into the room, she is none the wiser. You have to be one step ahead at all times in order to outwit her. ~~grins~~

Well, I think that this is about all the news from Puppy Land for now.  Tomorrow is another day and I am certain that there will be many puppy adventures to write about next week.  Do keep watch on my Facebook Puppy Album as new photos are added quite regularly and you can follow the puppies' development from birth until they leave home with their new adopted families. I have added in over 50 photos since my previous post. ;)  Enjoy and have a great week!