Anyone used one of these? How did they do?

I used one for our first litter and was very disappointed, not easy to clean and puppies chew, much better with a plastic one. Our plastic one has now done 5 litters and is fine.

I used one for my Large Breed Gundogs. I used large size incontinece sheets under the vet bed, and it worked well. If you are not breeding very often they are fine, and you can have a new one for each litter.
Mine were in it till they were up on there feet, but buy then they were ready for a large plastic bed anyway.
If you are planning on having a number of litters a plastic one is probably a good investment.

Depending on breed size I used a plastic underbed storage box for my first litter inside a puppy pen, I could wash it down daily in the bath and wipe it between with discinfectant cloths, i drilled a hole in the corner to feed the flex for the heatpad through.

If you are going to use cardboard then a series of boxes from the supermarket would be cheaper and can be cut to suit/joined together.

The cardboard one I had, had a white exterior so it looked better than the plain cardboard ones, and I think it had some sort of coating on it, so it wasn't as absorbent as just plain cardboard.
But for a cardboard box it was pretty expensive when you added on the carriage, but it did save having to store it and could just be burnt when finished with.
Some of the white plastic ones are lovely, and very easy to clean, but for a large size they are quite expensive.
The problem with wooden ones is that they are hard to clean, and I would be very wary about buying a seconhand whelping box as you never know what germs it could be harbouring.

> I would be very wary about buying a seconhand whelping box as you never know what germs it could be harbouring.

Would you believe it, on a FB 'Pets for sale' group someone was advertising a second-hand cardboard whelping box for sale!
When tactfully tried to say this wasn't a good idea, I was told: "It's ok, the dog it was bought for turned out not to be pregnant, and only slept in it for a while."

For our large breed we always knock a wooden one together for each litter and burn it afterwards -works out much cheaper than the cardboard ones.

we do the same as you goldmail even this time for out toy breed ,i like the fact the sides are very high well3 of them so i can ptu at blanket over to cover like a den holes were drilled into it so now ther 4weeks old the run is tie cliped to the sides they now have loads to play when they are ready i will take the front of the box off when a bit older i went them to stay warmer for now.

For my toy breed I googled cardboard box manufacturers (didn't want to use used.)  I found some triple thickness ones sold in packs of 10.  Loads of sizes, and I chose one to suit my breed.  Worked out about £3.50 a box, and I was able to burn them as  they got dirty.  They were a good buy.  I never had a bitch that went through a whole pack  of 10 though.

I was able to put them in a 4ft crate, with a blanket over the box, and the the flaps closed with just enough room for mum to come and go.  I left the crate open for mum.  My criteria for my toy breed for meeting other dogs is that the pups must be able to get out of the crate by themselves.  I find that the most forward pups will lean out as far as they can, and flip themselves out.  Bear in mind that the 3" lip is as tall as the pups when they first attempt adventures.

No storage problems, as they come flat packed.  :-)

Do they do a large size 4 ft plus, Jean ? Do you have the name of the company ? I would be interested for my next litter, as my last purpose made box was over £60 with postage.

Over the years I've had to change suppliers, because everyone seems to go bankrupt!!!

Originally I used a fantastic company, that stopped selling to the public.  Then found one on ebay - I've just logged in as they were saved to my suppliers list - they're no longer on there.  Nuisance! 

So I've googled triple wall, and only one company comes up.  If you scroll down you'll find sizes, but I don't do new money, so it's Chinese to me!  I don't know if there is anything suitable for you, or perhaps some that you could join together.  I've done that in the past, using thick packing tape.

http://www.rajapack.co.uk/cardboard-boxes/export-boxes/triple-wall-cardboard-loading-cases_OFF_UK_0203.html;pgid=DqVkGvAgRu1SR0cw2HVE73f20000Kwfpp4os;sid=x1SwH6YooHSzH_cd64GU1lsiRjwPCOKgs7xtQnOd3-muVXt1EuGoorhi

Thanks Jean,
I know what you mean I'm a Feet and Inches girl myself. Don't really understand mm but will get the tape measure out, or ask my husband he is used to metric measurements.

It will be a while off yet, as my girl has long intervals between seasons. But nice to have lots of options, and then I can just order everything when she is confirmed in whelp.

I've only had 2 litters but for the first one (nearly 15 years ago) I went to somewhere like Currys and got a cardboard box that one of the fridges had come in. They just recycle/chuck them out anyway and they were happy for me to have it. Cut it to size and worked great for the first 3 weeks.