This weekend, after many drawings and much research my friend and I will be making the whelping box and I just need to find out what people do about bedding. My girl loves digging at the best of times and I can't normally give her vet bed as she chews holes in it. I was thinking of trying to make a vet bed type sleeve to slide over the base of the box and having a few so they can be washed easily. Will this work? Really concerned about her eating the vet bed, but trying to think how to stop her covering them all with the bedding if she digs. She won't be left on her own but don't want to leave anything to chance.

What do you do?

I read somewhere about someone who secured velcro strips to the base and also the vet bed especially round the edges for the same reason as you are saying.  She also said she had been worried about her dog digging it up and a puppy ending up underneath. 
good luck x

I've read about ruck mats; basically a heavy mat inside a vet bed?

Isn't it nice to design and build your own whelping box?!! I don't care how many boxes there are out there, whatever materials and huge range of costs, the one I designed myself is perfection :-D

If you've got a solid inner to the vet bed 'sleeve' then I reckon it would work. What I would do though is to put something in there that she can ruck up.

I start off with newspaper ... how would she be with that? Or you could put in towels (I have tons of towels, many thanks to my late, much loved Mum who raided all the charity shops in the county when I got my first collie of my very own as a grown up ... many many years ago - still going through them :-) ).

I had been thinking of making a ruck proof whelping box base mat - using sherpa fleece (cheaper version of vetbed), a waterproof base (probably Cordura 'cause I have a HUGE roll of the stuff) and lining it with this:

http://www.directplasticsonline.co.uk/PolypropyleneSheet/?&gclid=CNfHhInd-K4CFcgntAod6SpU0A

So this might be an alternative to a sleeve over whelping box base - depending on your design and how easy to cover base! I'd still toss in some towels so that she can dig ... nothing happier than a digger managing to make a mess :-)

It is nice to build (well pass tools anyway lol) and design my own whelping box. I would have loved one of the white plastic ones, but cannot justify the extremely high cost of them, when I know that one could be made far far cheaper to exact needs.

The problem with velcroing the vetbed to the base is twofold, one, I like to have something absorbent under the vetbet as obviously any liquid passes straight through, so if I somehow put velco on the base, the absorbent layer would cover it. Also how you attach the velcro to the underside of the vet bed, its awful to sew through.

Think I might have to use the sheets that you have suggested, I wont be able to take out the floor of the box as the pig rails (well little shelf round the edge) would stop that coming out. But those sheets would be flexible enough to bend a bit.

Will keep thinking.  Yes she will have some shredded newspaper to dig and scratch in whilst she is in labour etc as she will have a real need to dig and scratch, its just that I could see a 4ft x 3ft bit of vetbed getting in an awful pickle with pups etc if she started scratching all that up.

I would have loved one of the white plastic ones, but cannot justify the extremely high cost of them,

I've got a lovely white plastic one ... made out of link-a-bord!! None of the expensive S....... jobbies for me. I looked at them and their equivalents, and still think what I've got is better, and a fraction of the cost :) I've even been told I'm putting my pups 'at risk' by not having a mult million £ S....... whelping box. Pah! Sit on the edge of my whelping box and one of theirs & you will soon see which is the stronger :-)

weve always made ours too from wood we got from ikea lol only ever cost us around £4 to make 1 and its been a very big 1 for large breeds :)

I was looking on ebay & couldn't believe the prices! Very nice to look at, but not sturdy enough for my liking. I also like to sit on the edge. We're going to start ours at the weekend :) Just wondering what to use for the base. Was thinking about a pack of laminate flooring...but open to suggestions.

wouldnt use laminate pee would still get tho the groves ,ive always used lineo ,had it bigger then box so it covers well,just sit the box on it and your sorted i wouldnt use anything eles! :)

Cow mat :-)

Yes, you heard right :-) I have cow mat in the base of my box (there is another CDer who has a cow mat too, she knows who she is!!) ... it is sturdy, will withstand scratching/digging, it is warm so wont cool down pups, but it's also cool so Mum can move off bedding if gets too warm. It can be disinfected, it's not very expensive, oh, most importantly, it's non-slip ... unlike laminate!!

http://www.cowcomfort.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=4&Itemid=11

These are not stable mats, they're not as nice :-) and they're harder :-( . Around 6' x 4' and think about £35 a go. There is someone on eBay selling them, otherwise you can order from agricultural supplies ... don't be tempted by imitations ;-)

Well, I think they're great ... also make brilliant bases for doggy caging in my van ... my dogs say it's very comfortable for them to lie on, specially in the summer when they object to any comfy bedding I might try to give them ;-)

It is a bit of problem if you have girl who really likes digging. I ( like many others here) also starts with newspaper that she can shred as much as she like.
When she is finished digging and in active labour, then towels with newspaper under. After birth I use the Vetbed.

Oh and my husband also built our whelpingbox.
It measures 200 cm x 105 cm hight 60 cm and fits perfectly to my girl and in our bedroom. In the whelping box my girl lays on a 12 cm thick matress in fauxleather-cover with velcroband under neath the matress. On this a fleececover and then  the newspaper.
Good luck with the welping!! My girl is to whelp from the end of this week so I am getting a bit nervous and excited now!!

sounds interesting but which one is it? some of the photos are so small that it's impossible to see what they're like.  thanks

Photos didn't work at all for me!  :-(

I'm afraid that, where the pic was supposed to be, it showed a red cross instead!  :-(

I made a whelping box myself using plywood obtained free from Freecycle. I sanded the rough edges & used marine varnish to finish off. I made pig rails from broom handles & drilled holes in the sides of the box to take them. I cut out a U shape door, and cut the piece I took out into two so the entrance height could be made higher as pups grew. Lastly, I purchased a piece of lino a few inches bigger than the whelping box all round to place on the floor with the box over.

For the digging phase of the whelping, I scrunched up a lot of newspapers & just threw them in along with sheets and towels. She had a wonderful time tossing it all about, digging etc. This was easy to clear out & when the whelping was finished, we put the pups in a basket and cleaned the box, adding new bedding for mum and babies.

Have saved the box, dismantled & wrapped up in the roof of the garage. It'll come out again & be good as new for the next litter, probably in a couple of years' time!

Very proud that I made it all myself, no help from my OH, and that it cost next to nothing...

PennyGC & JeanSW, the pics didn't work for me either :( They've changed their website in the last year - it's rubbish. However, their Mayo cow mats aren't!! I'm pretty sure it's the Original Mayo Mat I have, thickness is 24mm.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Stable-Horse-Mats-20mm-EVA-6ft-X-4ft-comfort-luxury-/280612950326?pt=UK_Horse_Wear_Equipment&hash=item4155d5d136

This is the Mayo Mat, though 20mm thick ... but has the same 'orange peel' rippled texture, but I got mine a few years ago!

Well the whelping box is all made and has been given three coats of yacht varnish which is completely waterproof.  I know its a long time in advance but the varnish stinks to high heaven so I want all that smell to have long gone.  Ive got shelves rather than pig rails as Ive heard stories about pups heads getting stuck behind them at some point. What Ive decided to do about her vetbed chewing issue/flooring rucking up is to use some of the ideas that youve given me. During labour shes going to have newspaper in large strips (shredded just gets everywhere and in eyes etc) and Ive got some old towels/sheets she can scrap about it to her hearts content. Then for when the pups are settled, Im going to get some of the polypropolene sheeting and cut it into three and 'hinge' it with duct tape.  That is so I can get it under the shelves without having to bend the sheet as a whole.  Ive decided to make some pillow case style covers (so no fastenings or velcro etc) made of fleece rather than vetbed. She really does chew little holes in vetbed and the last thing I need is an obstruction.  I can then put some incontinence/puppy pads inside the cover to absorb anything and the polypropolene sheet will keep it taught and flat.  The fleece wont stay wet as its a wicking fabric, I can make them cheaply and wash and dry them quickly too.

Im not too worried about the grip with the fleece either and its a summer litter and will have a heatpad over half of it too, so they dont need the vetbed for warmth as much as a winter litter.

Id love to be able to buy a cowmat, but I would have a storage problem afterwards and if I put it in the shed the mice would get it :(

Thank you for all your help, think this at least is sorted :D

thanks, they look very interesting...

Im not too worried about the grip

Grip's not important ... til the pups start to move around and stand! Bambi eat your heart out :-O Just bear that one in mind :-)