Splash's and Summer's litters TOGETHER! - NOW WITH TWO PUPPY CAMS!

ScoutTheGolden said:

Yay, more puppies! Congratulations! I love how you have a girl heavy litter, and a boy heavy litter, but together, it's almost exactly a 50/50 split.

This question may be a bit premature, but do you notice any differences with this being Summer's second litter? Like does she know what she's doing more, or is she over the puppies earlier or anything?

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DanaRuns said:

Summer's litter theme is, indeed, the "adventure" litter.
Splash's litter theme is "Marvel Universe."



Yes, we feel very fortunate in that regard. Not only are they both great moms, but they get along well with each other and each other's litters. They each have their litters in the same room, and they can walk back and forth between whelping boxes and interact with each other and each other's litters. Since Summer's litter was literally "born yesterday" we haven't allowed any "co-parenting" yet, but we suspect that these two sisters -- who are littermates, themselves -- will eventually share parenting responsibilities. I look forward to seeing that!



Fortunately, we've had good moms. Khaleesi wasn't the most enthusiastic mom, but she dutifully did what she was supposed to do. What we see mostly are variations in time spent in the whelping box the first four weeks or so. Some of our girls (Summer among them, and Splash so far) spend every waking moment with their puppies. But we have seen some where they quickly get to the point that they only go in the box to nurse, potty, and clean them, and then they're out of there. LOL! I'd say Khaleesi, for instance, did her duty; whereas Ziva and a couple others were really good up to about six weeks old and then was done with them; and Summer loves being a mother and spent all her time with her litter. She still maintains a special relationship with her puppy Delta. So far, Splash looks like she's going Summer's direction. She clearly loves being a mama.



We have heat lamps for the whelping boxes, but otherwise we just try to keep it around 70 in the room.

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DanaRuns said:

It's interesting to compare the two litters we have. Summer and Splash are littermates, so share very close genetics. A couple things I've noticed about their litters so far:

1. Splash's litter had super dark pigment from the day they were born. Summer's litter 4 days old is still developing pigment.

2. Splash's puppies were born small. They were all under a pound, but they have grown like wildfire, doubling their weight in just a few days and adding multiple ounces every day. Today they started going over 3 pounds and they're not even two weeks old yet. Summer's puppies were all a pound or more at birth, but they lost weight the first day and have been growing at a slower, more moderate rate, 1-2 oz per day.

No conclusions from any of this, just pretty fascinating to me how puppies from littermates could develop so differently.

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