The puppies started opening their eyes this week, toddling around the whelping box and awkwardly playing with each other. They are gaining weight everyday (which is a great sign) even though Maggie only has 9 nipples and is still pretty skinny from her pregnancy. (the puppies took up too much space for her to be able to eat very much at one time) We continued to weigh and do Neonatal Handling exercises this week.

She is such a good mama. It helps to have a good setup where Mom has access to her babies but also has her own space to get away and relax. If a mom can’t get away from her puppies she may start to neglect or even become aggressive towards them. We designed our puppy room so that Maggie has her own indoor and outdoor space accessible 24/7. But, the puppies have started escaping their whelping box (image below) so we will be expanding their space and adding a ‘mom wall’ so Maggie can have a puppy free zone!