It must be breed dependent.  Mine weigh usually around 12 - 16oz at birth, so like yours..

The books tell you to keep the temperature very high, but my breed have never coped well if the temperature on the thermometer atttached to the whelping pen is much over 22'C. 

I keep the heatpad on 24/7 for the first week, with an oil filled radiator on to keep the room at 20 - 22'C.

I notice that after a week my breed pups (double coated Nordic breed) are moving away/avoiding the heatpad, so have it turned off in the day.  I also at that point turn down the livingroom temperature during the day for our comfort to 18 - 20'C.

The whelping box is enclosed, so preserving heat in the actual whelping/nursing area and my girls virtually don't leave the box in the first week.

>Should I leave heat pad on 24/7??

Mine is on 24/7 and to be honest, until they can regulate their own temperature at 3 weeks, I don't ever turn it off.  Although they do have the option to move away from the heat pad if it gets too much.  Some of my bitches have the heat pad for 6 weeks, others only 3, so I play it by ear.

>Is 500grams a 1lb to us oldies?

Laughing at Rhodach.  :-)  Yes, it is (near enough.)

My vet asked me the weight of my pups in this litter.  I told him the smallest was 3ozs and the largest was almost 5ozs.  He looked puzzled.  I asked him what was the matter.  He said I'm trying to work out what that is in english.  He obviously went to school after we changed to metric!  I only do old money!  ;-)

I only weighed them in grams as its easier to read, how lazy is that.

They are double coated and Mum does get warm quick, so we have had heat pad on since they were born it is a very large one but they have plenty of room to get away from it if they are too warm.
Broken sleep all night, they would cry occassionally from losing Mum but other times I just wanted to look at them :) :)

Cb glad you got some rest. Fingers crossed for a smooth delivery soon

any news cb87 ?? hope all is well x

> we have had heat pad on since they were born it is a very large one

I only use one not much bigger than a sheet of A4 in a 3 or 4 foot square whelping pen. 

It is in the middle for the pups benefit in the first week, which means Mum can lay any side without having to lie on it herself, and of course she moves the pups into the middle with her body, so they benefit.

I brought a large heat pad before we had her scanned just incase as our breed often have large litters, our girl came from a litter of 13. They have plenty of room to go around it though

still nothing, just took her for a walk round the block again, took her for a ride in the car last night but still nothing :(

Blimey cb!!

You will soon be looking like a zombie!

>Broken sleep all night, they would cry occassionally from losing Mum but other times I just wanted to look at them :-) :-)

Glad I'm not the only daftie!   When these get lost, I have to pick them up to put back with mum.  Which means I have to have a kiss.  And these little blind fat slugs suck my bottom lip BLESS!

my bitch is getting really stressed out because she wants to be in the cupboard under the stairs but that is where 3 of my other dogs sleep :( their is no where for the other dogs to sleep, i have put my bitch in the puppy pen but she isnt happy :(

Are you totally happy that you're not looking at inertia?

she is very happy in herself, she isnt due until tomorrow so im not too worried, she panted for 3 days with her last litter, she is now tucking into 2 pounds of chicken mince :s lol

This is her punishment to you then!  For getting her into this state!  :-)

scrap that, she has ate some of it and is now covering the rest with newspaper lol

well im still awake and their is still no news grrr lol although she has been making a nest from newspaper, she ate her dinner 3 times over (yuk) and she is still panting and pacing, wish she would get on with things now lol she must be holding out till her due date (today) thats if she took to the first mating :s

My bitch was only sick the day the puppies started to arrive. I keep losing track of days it was 16 hours between first and last pup for us. The 5th pup she tried to push out but couldn't do it, vet said she was 'wide open' and pup was ready to come out so no reason to not be able to push right out but noticed she had quiet contractions so felt the need for oxytocin. I think had we left it longer she would have been in trouble, as it was vet was surprised we had another 2 live pups thankfully :)

3 girls 2 boys so far, still more to come :D

Hooray! Glad everything's on the move at last. :-)

How wonderful :) do you know how many you are expecting?

Got 7 now, can still feel at least 1 more

Lovely , pleased all is going well :)

Think my girl is getting closer , she won't let me out of her sight today , I think tonight or tomorrow she may start , can't wait :) I just love puppies

Congrats :)

Still not had the other pup yet, 2.5 hours since last pup, she is booked in at vets in an hour so she'll get a shot of oxy to move things along and have pups checked over

She is so Knackered she can't move bless her :(

Aww, she's been a busy girl.

Congrats. xxx

Have you got nutro /vet drops and calcium,vanilla icecream is an alternative, to give her a boost of energy?

Hope she manages without going to the vet.

Congrats on the pups so far.

Just back from vets, he isn't sure if their is another pup, says if there is it is high up an most likely dead, gave her a shot of oxy an antibiotics and said if nothing happens by the morning to go back for an X-ray an if there is still one in then they will need to do a section :(

Sorry the news wasn't better, is she still contracting?

Keep your pecker up, many pups have arrived safe and well up to 24 hours later when the breeder thought she had finished.

I am surprised that an Xray wasn't the first option at this stage as the bones would have shown up clearly if there was as pup there. 

Observe her closely for any nasty smells.

The pups suckling will help with contractions. And moving the pup down.

no obvious contractions, she is settled now with her pups, will keep an eye on her all night, even though i am bloody knackered :(

I'm pleased that you have pups at last (even if you're knackered.)

Just as a word of caution.  I once had a bitch whelp 6 pups perfectly fine.  But it was obvious that there was a pup left, right up high.  All the oxytocin in the world would not have brought it down.  The x-ray showed a pup, but difficult to make out a head, and the vet decided to section.

Very glad that she did, as the pup had the head bent backwards, and trapped in the ribs.  It was obviously dead by this time, but the vet was good enough to ask if I wanted to see it after the op.  I held it in my hand, perfectly formed, and the same size as the others.  It was a great shame, but the vet said it was just bloody bad luck to get a malpresentation.  As the problem was not related to pups that were too big, she said that the bitch would whelp naturally if she ever had another litter.

I don't normally breed from a bitch that has had a section, but, in this instance, the bitch did have a later litter, with a perfectly natural whelping.  While I'm not trying to scare you into thinking you have a pup trapped in the same way, I think it is good to share our experiences in this way.  (Hope you all agree.)

When we went to vets with our girl he felt her tummy and said he wasn't sure if there was a pup there or not, turns out there were another 2! I would have asked him to do x ray to check for more for piece of mind. How is she now?

sorry i havent updated, their were no more pups thankfully :D so we have 7 healthy pups, 4 girls 3 boys, mum is doing a fantastic job of looking after them. just 1 small worry, i have just weighed the pups and one of them isnt gaining like the others are, the smallest pup has only gained 64g where as most of the others have gained around the 200g mark, she does feel smaller and slightly weaker than the others, all the others have big round tums and hers is more flat. i have started to put her on the bottom nipples after the bigger pups have fetched the milk through, how many times a day should i do this for and for how long at a time? im worried that the bigger pups are knocking her off so i have been moving them to the other side of the whelping cage while she feeds

Have you got nutro/ vet drops, they will give her extra energy without filling her up and making her reluctant to feed.

Is the whelping box warm enough as keeping warm can use many calories, is she being pushed out to the edges by the bigger pups?

Have you checked she doesn't have cleft palate which can hamper an ideal sucking technique.

Having a worm load[first due at 2 weeks old] can also make them reluctant to feed and gain weight1was the dam wormed daily from day 42? Have you tried weighing her before and after a feed as an indication of how much she is getting, we used to do that for prem babies who were being breast fed and not gaining weight as expected. 

Putting her on the back teats allows her to get more milk with less effort so keep doing it, you shouldn't need to put another pup on first as they flow readily from the off.

I hope things pick up and she is just a slow starter.

i dont have any drops no, i only bought in some dopram incase they were probs at birth. the whelping pen has a heat mat in it that is on 24/7 but the pups tend to sleep off of this so im guessing they are warm enough (i know i am lol ) mum was wormed yes. i was always led to believe that if i put a larger pup on the nipple first it would get more milk flowing for the smaller pup. all pup have been vet checked and was all healthy at a day old. if she doesnt start to pick up soon would it be wise to supplement her with some whelpi aswell as keep putting her on mum? i just dont want her to fall to far behind. the smallest pup at birth has gained 150g

Glad to hear all went well :)

We have 2 slower boys. We also have heat pad on 24/7 the 2 boys a couple days ago had only gained 5g each in one day all the others were gaining on average 80-100g per day so was very worried! Gave them some puppystim and the next day 1 boy gained 75g the other 100g, so well happy with that! We also have nutri drops incase we need them, I would order some from hyperdrug, you can get next day delivery.

Still putting boys on back nipples to get a nice meal and stopping others stealing their nipple as the girls are very pushy!

1 boy was sort of choking the other day but not gagging, it was weird! He was rattly too! We phoned emergency vet who told us to swing him between our legs 3 times, stroke his throat down to get him to swallow and rub his back. We did this and he was fine after :) terrifying experience though :(

Hope all puppies carry on doing well, and Congratulations :)

A slower pup should be popped onto a nipple every hour initially and every two once they start catching up.  When the other pups are asleep put the weaker pup on, on her own so it gets extra meals.  Being smaller it will be unable to accommodate as much as the bigger pups.

> >Have you got nutro/ vet drops, they will give her extra energy without filling her up and making her reluctant to feed. <br /><br />

My boy wasn't putting the same as his sister the first few days.  i only had to give one dose of nuriedrops to get his appitite going.  After that he went like the clappers and gained a good daily weight.  He overtook his sister by 19gms consistently.