The puppies had a pretty quiet night but the MaterGator decided that they needed to eat again at 5:30 this am. But we did all go back to sleep eventually. Nanny McPhoebe needed to go outside at some point in the middle of the wee hours. She’s generally VERY quiet in her crate and she’s only been being crated for the few hours between the 2am feeding and daylight (or whenever Caly feeds the puppies) because she barks at things going through the yard, like deer or cats or maybe skunks and I don’t want that interruption to my little sleep (or making a skunk spray which was the concern the first time I crated her). Last night, she stopped quickly when I cued it so she got to spend the rest of the night loose again. She’s growing up! We’ll see how she does tonight.
I’ve napped by the puppies a few times today and spent more time with a puppy napping on me. It’s mostly been the same puppy today since she’s a little fussy. She was sleepy during the first feeding this am so I don’t think she ate enough with the others. I eventually topped her off with a little solo nursing and a bottle but she’s still just not in sync with her siblings today. With 9, it is hard for them to all be on the same exact schedule and MaterGator doesn’t lie in the box with them all of the time like her Mama did. Even so, later we had the waves of awake and sleeping with the TEN puppies. It’s not too much of a hardship to cuddle a puppy to sleep on me ;-). And I did take the opportunity to cut all of her toenails. She’s twitching in her sleep as I type. Since she’s still active (the word vigorous keeps coming up with these puppies) and eating well, I’m not worried about her health. I suspect this will happen with different puppies the next few days. Once they get their teeth and start eating, it will only mean they can’t find a littermate awake on their schedule.
There’s more and more stretching and rolling around happening. I’m not sure there’s much cuter than sleeping puppies stretching, yawning, rolling over and going back to sleep. I try not to disturb them but it’s hard not to scoop them up every time.
I know their hair is growing because it is hiding their collars. It’s one of those things that are too gradual to notice until something like that points it out. I’ll try to hold off on putting them into little lion butts for a couple more weeks but I have started brushing them with the little brush I use on the big dogs’ shaved rears and muzzles. We aren’t doing it on the table yet, I like to finish up with ENS before I start too much of that sort of thing. And we have to wait for teeth before we do any brushing or bite checking ;-)
They have the lamby stuffy from the photo shoot yesterday in the pen with them. I had it cuddled up when I was carrying little miss ‘onmyownschedule’ today around. I figured if she went to sleep, I could put it down with her and she’d be less likely to notice. Nanny McPhoebe has removed it at least once and traded other toys for it a couple of times but so far, no attempts to destroy it.
I had to resort to having someone with vision assist with weighing the puppies because while some of them were quite cooperative, some of them were decidedly NOT. I knew they seemed fine but periodically, I need to KNOW. It’s a good thing I set it up on the floor because they like to tip over the box and leave. Maybe they think that their weight should be a private matter ;-). We have at least 2 2 pounders and we have 5.6lbs more puppy than we had 3 days ago. That gain is more than their birth weight. I guess the MaterGator speed nursing them is sufficient. (And if I am actually going to bottle feed anyone as opposed to a little supplementation here and there, I’d need to up the amount I’m giving.)
I’m going to do a little more snuggling and then we’ll nap until the next feeding time. Nighty nighty nighty and puppy breath to all!
