Growing Fast!!

Our sweet puppies are growing so fast! The black pigment on their noses is slowly coming in.  It usually take a few weeks to get to full color. Their eyes are still closed, as you can see, but they should be opening soon.  Before long they will be getting around really well, and their personalities will start to bloom. :)

Weighing Puppies

In the evenings, we gather the puppies into this bin and take them to get weighed.  The weights are recorded and each puppy is inspected before it goes back into the whelping box.  With large litters, it's important to make sure that they are each getting enough to eat.

 

Puppy pile!

It's hard to get a clear picture of a puppy getting weighed.  They wiggle a lot - especially when you take them away from their cozy, warm siblings! :)

October 2014 Litter

Beauty has labored for about 12 hours and has had a dozen gorgeous puppies!  I was able to be with her when puppies number 11 and 12 were born.  It was pretty exciting!  I sat there and massaged Beauty's head while she had them. So far we have seven boys and five girls - wondering if there is one more yet to come. She's a great mom!  Here are a few pictures.

Here They Come!

Beauty Rose of Housman Farms started having puppies this morning around 3am.  Mike and I watched her last night from our warm, cozy bed via our puppy cam. :)  She had been pretty restless that evening, so we left the camera on all night.  Our children woke up this morning to the familiar sound (coming from our camera) of little puppies whining - they love that sound! :)
At this point, she has had nine beautiful puppies.  So far, they are mostly white.  We have not checked to see what the ratio of boys to girls is yet, as we don't want to bother mom too much.  We did give her an "energy drink" this morning though. :)  Having that many puppies can take a lot of hours, and mom can get pretty tuckered out.
We'll keep you posted on the final count, and try to get some pictures posted soon. :)

Give Your Dog a Bone!

Dog: a domesticated carnivorous mammal.  Yes, your dog is a carnivore!  And carnivores eat raw meat and bones.  It's hard for our domesticated minds to grasp the fact that dogs never used to eat food from cans and bags, but with the growing health problems in this country -both in humans and animals - it's time to take a look at the diet!

When we tell customers to feed their puppies raw meaty bones, they usually say, "I didn't think you could feed dogs bones.  Won't they choke?"  No, your dog won't choke.  Most dogs eat bones like we eat chips - "crunch...crunch" and down the hatch! :)  It's pretty amazing to watch!  The key with feeding bones is that they must be raw.  Cooked bones can splinter and cause problems, but raw bones are very nutritious and good for your dogs teeth.  Just make sure your bones are not too large.    Chicken wings are a fine food for puppies!

 

In the same way that we must eat what we were designed to eat in order to be healthy, your dog must eat what it was designed to eat to be healthy.  We would not expect a child raised on processed foods to be healthy, so why would we expect that of our animals?  Raw foods are best for everyone! While it may not be possible to feed them raw meat all the time, even supplementing their diet with raw meaty bones will help.