I  have a litter due soon and I have bought a petnap heat pad, however, my house is a very old cottage so is very hard to keep warm. The whelping area is in my lounge and I am a bit concerned that the temperature wont be warm enough. I havent got a room thermometer but am going to get one today to check the temperature in the day and particularly overnight.

I have thought about buying a heat lamp as well, but am concerned that it may be too warm for them then...what do you think?

We used a heat fan that had a thermostat on it so we set it to 20 degrees.  It turned on when it was too cold and turned off once the right temp had bee reached. they wiggled away when they were too hot and got closer and bundled when colder. I'm really not an expert though but we were told to avoid a heat lamp as it might over heat our bitch and stop her wanting to use the whelping box (we also got advice to use one though so we just went with our gut instinct)

Susie

Is your whelping box covered? That will make a tremendous difference to the warmth inside it, and is much more easily controlled. It only needs to be under a table with blankets draped over to form the walls (which can be drawn back if it gets too warm in the 'den').

I agree with Jeangenie, I have my whelping box inside a croft freedom pen, then covered with blankets, this is in my dining room. 

Thanks for the replies. It is a box made out of thick plywood, the sides are 28 inches high and i planned on putting a blanket over the top to make a den.

The pups need to be kept very warm for the first few days as they have problems controlling their own temp,infections can so easily overwhelm a cold pup, a dogs normal temp is higher than a humans anyway.

I left the heated pad on 24/7 over half the sleeping area so if they get too hot they can crawl off to a cooler spot,Mum and the pups.

If you need to take the pups to the vet and don't have a microwave head pad then make 2 "rice mummy's" in advance, fill 2 knee high stockings with raw rice to make a sausage shape,knot the end and enclose each in another knee high the other way round,place in the microwave to warm,times vary depending on the type used, these can be shaped around the pups to give heat and security, they stay warm for ages.

Yeh, I plan to leave the heat pad on 24/7 as they will have plenty of room to get away from it (i over estimated the size needed for whelping box and its huge!!) and it has an in car adapter so will keep it plugged in for vet trips etc.

I have an electric heater with thermostat that I will move near to the whelping area. Maybe I am worrying about nothing, but when im sat in the lounge with the heating on full blast and 2 jumpers on and still cold its not good!!

No that isn't good as we haven't reached winter yet. I had a clock which told you the temp in the area it was placed,left it on the floor outside the pen just kept an eye on it and had no problem with pups born Xmas morning.

Make sure where the whelping area is has no draughts, I tried draping a fleece around the sides and over the top but when I left the room Mum had pulled them all down into the pen so abandoned that idea as the pups were getting lost in the bedding.

I am someone who doesn't like it too warm in the house.

I create a whelping area using puppy pen panels, with one across the top at the back.  I line around the sides to about 18 inches with cardboard using cable ties punched through.  the front panel is either a gated or drop fronted one.

I have a medium size breed, and use either a 3 foot square (has a solid base to fit it into) or with a large litter four foot square (use an off-cut of cushion-floor lino under) pen.

Over the top and sides I use an old bedspread so the only open area is the upper part of the front to which I attach a household thermometer (they sell all sorts and sizes in our pound shops).

In the pen I use a heat pad under the vet bed, and keep the temperature in the pen above 20'C.  for heating over and above the background heating of my Central Heating which is set at 15 - 18'C normally I stand one of those electric oil filled thermostatically controlled radiators on the window side of the whelping pen.

This I set to maintain the whelping pen at the required temperature, so it often only comes on when the CH is off.

As mine is a coated Nordic breed I find that after a week ti is obvious that 20'c is too warm for the pups and I turn the thermostat down a bit, ans by the time they are 10 days old it's just the heat pad, and background heating.  Buy two weeks mine don't want heat in the box unless we have severe weather when I will put it on at night.

Can you put some insulation under the box to stop the cold coming up from the floor ??

I don't like the heat at all,and was worried I would keel over when our bitch whelped in March! but we managed fine.The heating was kept on a constant 20 degree's,and we kept the whelping room (our living room) doors shut at all times to prevent draughts.

I used a baby room thermometer - the egg shaped one as it changes colour,so when it went blue I'd know it was too cold,also,i could move this into the actual whelp box,and on the floor (as obviously heat rises,so no point having the thermometer on the wall!)

We had a heat lamp and pad,never used them at the same time.We had the pad on during labour when lots was going on.We have a heavily coated breed.

Good luck!

my whelping box is totally enclosed and has a wooden base to it. I dont feel the cold too easily but this cottage is 300 years old with solid walls that seem to absorb the heat! It is just generally a very cold house...the windows freeze on the inside :O  My bitch does have a long coat but feels the cold easily when not on the move.

I went out to get a household thermometer and could i find one?!!! Think i may just order one online...much easier than shopping (I hate shopping)