Babies of this age weigh about 8ozs, and are born blind and deaf.
(In the natural world the puppies would have been born in a burrow
in the earth. The dirt of the soil would not get into eyes or
ears because all are sealed.)
When they start moving about in the whelping bed area ears open,
the flaps close over and the eyes unseal. This begins at about
10-14 days of age.)
Sometimes a baby is born that is not doing too well in the nursery
department of our home. Bigger babies push the small ones to one
side and we have to encourage the tiny one to develop it’s
jaws and sucking enough to enable it to hang on to the mother’s
nipple tightly. By bottle feeding we can be sure puppy is getting
enough milk and the nutrition needed to develop properly. A human
baby’s bottle with a preemie nipple is just the thing for
a baby puppy to catch up, becoming stronger by the day. Sometimes
these pups will overtake their litter mates in just a day or so
with their weight gain. After a bottle feeding the babies are
burped, returned to their Mother for her to attend to. For the
weaker puppy we sometimes take the strong, bigger ones out of
the whelping box so that the tiny ones have their time to nurse
without being pushed off . This works well. Always we are there
to supervise to be sure that all puppies get enough milk.
Back to Wire Fox Terrier
Puppies
