First Gruel

Big Day yesterday at the house.  Started the morning by giving the big puppies milk in puppy food bowls instead of bottles since I wanted to give them gruel yesterday.  They lapped it up, spread it from here to there to everywhere and all over themselves.  They climbed over the bowls, had it on their belly's and proceeded to lick it off of each other before all was said and done.  Vegas came in and tried to clean them to the best of her abilities and I moved them one at a time, wiping them down with a washcloth as I went over to the big pen in the living room.

I then had to scrub their whelping box from top to bottom because they had formula everywhere.  I then went in to feed Kenya's babies and all they could do was focus on my shirt that was now soaked with formula as well, their little noses were twitching every which way.  Finally everyone was fed and I was able to take a shower so I didn't smell like formula.

The big puppies stayed in the living room all day and in the afternoon we mixed kibble in with their formula to make them gruel.  By now they were pros and knew what to do and they polished off every last drop, poor Vegas didn't get any spoils to clean up other than what was on the puppies.

My dad and Chaz came in the afternoon and everyone piled into Chaz's lap in both litters, he has such a way with the puppies and at the end of the day Vegas' babies were put back in the whelping box for nighttime to sleep.

Kenya's babies are growing by leaps and bounds and I wouldn't be surprised if when I weigh them this morning if a couple of them are not 3 pounds or at least very close to it.  I haven't felt any teeth yet, but Kenya is sitting more than laying down with them, which is hard for Mint girl. 

Kenya and I have a routine, she comes in and jumps on the bed in the whelping room, I then put Mint & Ladybug on her to suckle for 5 minutes and then have Kenya go into the box.  This gives mint a chance to nurse on mom without getting knocked off.  Then I get a bottle warmed up and let her drink from the bottle.  Ladybug continues to nurse off of mom and is getting bigger and stronger by the day.

Today is the last day Larena is here, tomorrow afternoon she heads off to her next house sitting job.  I will miss her tremendously and will have to get all the pups on a schedule that allows me to get some sleep.  I know my son can come in and help on Mondays and will start to see if anyone else wants to come in during the week for a few hours so I can get some rest and run errands.

I apologize, I forgot to post this yesterday - oops