Where did you get these little puppy bowls? I have only found the big ones. So to start my puppies out, I put a small drinking glass in the middle of a shallow dish to keep them from wandering through! But purpose-made dishes would be so much nicer!

 

This is brilliant.

 

I deleted this post because it was in response to a dumb bot post.

 

I think the bot found something about feeding human babies.

Yup! It’s gone! Most are better (sneakier) than that! And that’s why, annoying as it seems, we insist on that first post in “New Member Introductions”. (Even though some people get mad at us and stomp out of the room!)

 

Those bowls are probably at least 25 years old and I expect came from Petsmart, which was the only source we had before so much stuff came available on the internet. This size is only big enough for a litter of five. For a larger litter we either use multiplebowls or a large one. We have one large enough for 15 puppies that they use when multiple litters start spending time together.

I was sitting on the floor with these puppies while Pam was changing the bed in their pen, and switching from a grate with pad and one litter box to two litter boxes. I just thought to take the phone out of my pocket and take the picture so maybe someone could benefit from seeing it.

The Moms clean the babies up as long as they're nursing, until they start eating. Once they start eating they start leaving poop to get up. The grates are trouble to keep clean with multiple puppies, so it's also a good time to switch them to two litter boxes.

I think the determining factor on when we have to stop raising puppies is when I can no longer sit on the floor with them. I spend a lot of time on the floor with them, with most of it being when they start coming out in the house to meet the rest of the world.

I sit with a foot on each side of a litter box and the space between my legs is the first they start with. We're trying to get a video, but the adult dogs get in the way too much so far. The adults think wagging tail puppies are great fun and want to be in on their action.

 

Those bowls are probably at least 25 years old and I expect came from Petsmart, which was the only source we had before so much stuff came available on the internet. This size is only big enough for a litter of five. For a larger litter we either use multiplebowls or a large one. We have one large enough for 15 puppies that they use when multiple litters start spending time together.

I was afraid you’d say that! They seem to all be the standard larger (or WAY larger size now! So I’ll stick with my little dish and glass for now. It works, but is a bit messier to clean up! (The little red one in this photo is Ducky! ) I put a pad under them to catch the mess!

I think the determining factor on when we have to stop raising puppies is when I can no longer sit on the floor with them. I spend a lot of time on the floor with them, with most of it being when they start coming out in the house to meet the rest of the world.

Elinor was here having lunch with us yesterday, and we were talking about potty training, because our new puppy is a …challenge. Her breeder tried very hard, but this was her second litter and she just didn’t have the experience. But (of course) your and Pam’s names came up in terms of potty training puppies. I said that I found it absolutely amazing that you were completely able to sit on the edge of the weaning pen, carry on a conversation, and out of the corner of your eye notice “that puppy” that was ready to potty in the wrong place, and gently scoop it up and deposit it onto the litter box. I have gotten pretty good at potty training litters. Mine are pretty reliable in their pen by 6 weeks, and in the kitchen by 8 weeks. All are TOTALLY reliable in a normal ex-pen with a potty by the time they go home, which is my goal.

But YOU are AMAZING. Everything I know about potty training litters, I have leaned from you and Pam, but I do think that you are largely in charge of this part, from what I’ve seen! And it is a true gift to be able to keep your eye on that many puppies at once and get them where they need to be at the right time!

I sit with a foot on each side of a litter box and the space between my legs is the first they start with. We're trying to get a video, but the adult dogs get in the way too much so far. The adults think wagging tail puppies are great fun and want to be in on their action.

I sure HOPE you get that video. I’ve seen it in person. But I wish everyone here could see you in action, and see what goes into producing puppies that are already so well started on potty training! It makes a HUGE difference!

 

Pam says they're called something like slow feeder bowls, and should still be available.

 

I’ll take a look!

 

Those look like exactly the ones we have, including the blue non-skid stuff on the bottom.

 

That size bowl is not quite the ideal size for a litter of six, but they made out with it tonight.

 

All those fluffy heads! 💗

 

We have the other size bowls, but since we currently have three litters to feed we were going from one to the other with the same bowl. We'll use the next size up for that litter today. With the small one, six get the puppy mush on each others heads when they raise their head up.

They learn right off that if two are too close together on each side of where they raise their head up, to raise their chin up over their two heads and come straight down to make room. This was the third day for Stella's six eating out of a bowl, and they are real pros at it already.

 

Feel free to take this down if it's not allowed, but I thought most would want to see puppy pictures. We just took these this morning of the litter you see with their heads down in the bowl.

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They are adorable!!! Tom, it is ALWAYS fine to post photos of puppies as long as they are not for sale! And I happen to know you always have a waiting list, so, it is absolutely fine… even if you posted the photos directly on the Forum! ❤

 

Thanks. I know some rules have been added, so wasn't sure about puppy pictures.

I just had these out loose in the house with the adult dogs. They wag their tails at all of them, but I don't understand the difference that Nash has over the others. All puppies absolutely adore Nash. He plays great with them and they all run after him.

 

I don’t think any of the new rules would affect you. They are only that we no longer allow reviews or critiques (positive or negative) of breeders, whether these are requested or not. We found that we were getting too many people who were joining the forum ONLY to make this kind of post. They were not members of our communit, and their motives were not always clear. So the only way that seemed fair to breeders and to people asking for help was to ask that responses to any requests for information about breeders be done in private messages!

 

For breeders:

Timing of this is very important. It takes the babies a couple of days to get used to eating. It's best to start this several days before the Mothers decided it's time to wean the puppies and they won't nurse them any more. This varies with each Mother, so there is some guesswork involved that experience helps with.

Some Mothers will start asking for us to feed the puppies. They will ask for something and you won't know what they are asking for. Last night, Stella, the mother of the litter featured in the pictures in this thread, starting asking me for something sitting in front of my chair. Her babies were calling for her, but when I asked if she wanted to go in to her babies, she didn't. The mothers most of the time don't want the other dogs going in close to her babies, so we keep baby gates up on the rooms the puppies are in and we have to let the mothers in and out.

I had to look back to when I started this thread and saw that it was five days ago. We may have been okay to start a day or two after we did, but five days works out to be pretty good. The mother's milk supply varies with demand. If the demand stops all of a sudden, it can not only be uncomfortable for the nursing mother, but she may get mastitis.

We fed the puppies and they and Stella were very satisfied. Stella has gradually reduced the amount of milk she produced over these five days and she didn't go in to nurse them last night. I think it worked out great for this litter.

We fed them at about 10:30 last night, and they slept all night. We fed them just once the first day, twice the second, and three times a day after that. They know how to eat well out of the bowl the second and pros the third day, but you still have to remind them to eat. We feed them outside their pen. They will get distracted and walk away from the bowl "forgetting" to eat. I pick them up gently and place them with their front feet close to the bowl and they will go back to eating. It might take several times before one gets full enough to really not want to eat any more.

 

I set up a small “dining room” for mine, attached to their weaning pen. That way they don’t wander away during a meal. I also haven’t always been so lucky with “neat eaters”. Although MOST have been neat, in this last litter I had one that I wanted to rename “Pig Pen” (from Peanuts) he seemed to feel that it was impossible to eat without the full immersion method. Even with the small baby dish, he insisted on getting IN the dish all the way to eat.

Here was Robert Frost… You can see, the rest of the puppies were relatively clean. Not Robert! He was snow plowing his brothers out of the way as he ate!

 

I sit on the floor with them, or on an aerobic step next to their pen that Mom uses to get in and out that you can see in some of my pictures. That way I can handle them as needed. They don't start with the idea that they need to stand with their front feet close to the bowl, but want to lean forward from standing away from the bowl, which puts their front feet too far back under their center of gravity causing face plants. They get in the habit pretty quickly with a little early help.

 

Playing in a play pen in the Puppy Room today, after about a half hour into their second play sessiong back there this afternoon, they started to get fussy.

I offered them some soaked kibble and they thought the new food was great stuff!

 

First meeting of two litters this morning between the two play pens in the Puppy Room. I was sitting on the floor with the younger litter while Pam was changing to clean beds and boxes in their current sleeping pens. So it was hard to get a good picture.

No accidents in either pen, so it wasn't too early.

Nothing but wagging tails and spinning excitement, but both litters ate in these pens and none were stressed enough not to want to eat right off. Sorry I couldn't get a better picture.

Both these litters are now crashed hard back in their current sleeping pens in clean beds with clean litter boxes.

We have a lot of feet and nails to trim this afternoon.

 

I don't know why I'd never thought about it before, but tonight I realized where the term "played out" came from.

They played together in the big pen and had the best time running. They had worn me out and I went to catch a little bit of the ball game. I heard them start fussing like they were ready to go to bed. The thing that surprised me was that the ones still up doing the asking all knew which direction their bed was. The rest of them were already laying down under something.

They all have clean beds and boxes for tonight, and I'm pretty sure we'll all get a full night's sleep tonight.

 

Lucky future families who will have puppies that are already learning how to have an ‘off switch’!!

 

I just took this video of the two younger litters playing and eating together. This is the inside substitute for their screened porch play area in cold weather. That's Dapper watching through the gate to the boys dog room. You can see one using the litter box in the back right corner. We expect them to find a box on their own at this age of just turned six weeks in this much area.

 

It seems there are an infinite number of variations in the Reds. Light ones will darken, dark ones will lighten, but not always.

 

Yesterday we had all three litters playing together in that big pen. No accidents, but I had to manage them so that if one went towards a litter box needing to go, I had to make sure there weren't three or four puppies playing in that box so it couldn't get in. It happened several times, but I gently picked up the puppy needing to go and carried it to another box.

With just one or two litters in there, they don't get crowded out like that.

I didn't have still time enough to get another video.

 

Yesterday we had all three litters playing together in that big pen. No accidents, but I had to manage them so that if one went towards a litter box needing to go, I had to make sure there weren't three or four puppies playing in that box so it couldn't get in. It happened several times, but I gently picked up the puppy needing to go and carried it to another box.

With just one or two litters in there, they don't get crowded out like that.

I didn't have still time enough to get another video.

I never thought of THAT problem! I guess they are a little young to teach them to queue up!😆