Pregnancy

Puppies & Pets

Personal Links

Whelping Box:

Dams should deliver at home in a familiar place where it is quiet and safe from drafts or the cold. The best place to deliver newborn puppies is in a whelping box.

The box should be wide enough so that the dam can turn around in it & easy enough for her to exit. Wooden boxes or a box that has easy cleaning access is the best.

Lay several sheets of paper in the bottom of the box or peepads to absorb moisture. The whelping box or room should be kept at a steady temperature of 85F or 29C for the first week.

Temperature can slowly be lowered after one week. The leading cause of puppy deaths are cold, damp quarters.

Signs of Whelping:

Whelping normally begins earlier in larger litters & later with those of smaller litters. My Pebbles had two puppies and her gestation was 65 days.

The first sign of whelping is a drop in body temperature. Anything below 99.5F or 37.5C is a sign that labor could be on it's way.

The dam will lose her appetite 12-24hrs before delivery. She will become restless, start digging and nesting.

I knew that Pebbles was ready when she had no appetite and seemed sluggish. It started at 4pm with her just laying around and nesting in her whelping box. Her temperature was 36.8C in the morning and went back up to 37.3C in the afternoon at 4pm.

If the dam does have her litter else where transfer the puppies to the whelping box as soon as she finishes delivering.

Whelping Supplies:

In addition to a whelping box here are a few supplies that will be helpful during the birth of your puppies.

• Sterile latex gloves
• Blub syringe to suction out fluid from the puppies nose and mouth
• Hemostats to clamp the umbilical cord
• Dental Floss to tie the umbilical stump
• Heating Pad for the newborn pups
• Thermometer to record the temperature of the dam
• Scale for weighing the puppies to make sure they are gaining weight
• KY Jelly to assist in the delivery or to loosen a puppy
• Stethoscope to listen to the dams babies in her belly
• Ribbon to help identify each puppy
• PeePads to line the whelping box for absorbtion of fluids
• Heating Lamps to warm the puppies area
• Clean Towels or wash cloths
• Syrup to help with energy levels of the laboring dam or puppies
• Trash bags and paper towels
• Scissors
• Raspberry Leaf found in your local health store

Introduce the dame to her whelping box a few weeks before delivery. When the time comes she will know what its for & fell safer delivering her pups there.

As soon as I gave my Pebbles a few doses of the Raspberry Leaf she went into labor. This was my first time giving it to her. Not sure if this helped bring on delivery but it helps aid during labor.