I just feel like sharing with you my joy and profound RELIEF:  Nimue whelped her five puppies this morning between 7:10h and 8:45h.  Not bad for a first litter, eh?  There were at least 22 hours between the drop in temperature and the first signs of real contractions, so, based on a lot of previous experience, I was getting really worried that this birth would end in a C-section, the last thing I wanted for Nimue on a first litter!  I was obsessing, Rabid, I really was!    And now I am just so grateful that it all went normally!  We have three boys and two girls.

Hi congratulations on your pups!

Some of what you wrote apparently did not come through here.  But I got it by email.  Frankly, I don't think you need be very concerned with how LONG the temperature stays down.  The important thing is that, as Mamabas said, it goes down and STAYS down.  This seems to be the case with your female, so I'd say you can expect things to take off very soon, if not immediately.

YAY.  Guess what?  It's my birthday too, today :)

Well how about that!  See?  My pups, you .......and the QUEEN!

Enjoy!

You could go for regal names

I vote for Elizabeth, Charles, William, George and Charlotte!

I'm a name freak, so you're talking right down my line.  Thing is:  I have the names ready long before the birth, in this case five boys names and five girls names.  As the puppies are born, they are named immediately.  This litter is a double R litter. I went through the alphabet once, and now the second time around I give double names, as in AA, BB and so on.  We've arrived at RR.  So these pups bear the names Rolls Royce, Rave Review and Rabble Rouser (boys), while the girls are Razzledazzle Razzmatazz and Russian Roulette.  Naturally the call-names are shortened (Royce, Rave, Razzledazzle, Roulette, Rouser).  I tend to stick to English names, so unfortunately people hereabouts do not always relate to them very well, being as they are German- and French-speaking.  I'm American-born, raised and educated, but I've lived nearly my entire adult life in Switzerland.  So English names mean more to me than German ones do.

Still it would be fun to name them Elizabeth, Charles, William, George and Charlotte!  And, BTW, is the Duchess of Cambridge pregnant or not???  (May I ask this, even though it pertains to a human pregnancy instead of a canine one?)

That's sort of opposite to my situation.

I am from Polish parentage and gave all my pups Polish word names (which confused and bent peoples tongues), but reached Z last year (didn't use 4 letters as 3 aren't used and no words start with Y).

So I have decided to start with A again but this time English names, and have Artful Dodger (boy) and the 6 girls are Airy Fairy, all Things Nice, A Spring Flower, Ask Me Not, Aurora Nights, and April Dawn, all with my prefix of course.

> And, BTW, is the Duchess of Cambridge pregnant or not??

I think that has to be an 'or not' - she was stick-thin during her trip to India, for starters.   And given her early pregnancy problems with the last two, I somehow don't think she's have gone on that kind of trip if she is pregnant, again.

Congrats. on the 5 - nice number ..... I always liked 5 or 6.   Unless as with one we had, there were 5 BOYS!

Are there truly more male pupies born than females?  It certainly seems so to me.  Anybody have any statistics? 

I have no idea whether it's an urban myth but I have heard it said the earlier in the 'time' a bitch is mated, the more likely there will be more males than females.   I certainly was eager to get a mating done and our male to female ratio was always more males than females!!   But again I have also heard that males tend to determine the sex, females how many - one often used male tended to produce more bitches than males.    But that's probably another old wives tale.   There always seem to be more Whippet male puppies than female, or perhaps it's just everyone wants bitches, leaving more males available?

I've heard it said (and I believe I have read it on occasion as well) that, yes, the sire determines the sex of the puppies, the dam the number of pups (eggs released).  There are literally billions of sperm.  "They" say that male sperm travel faster, while female sperm live longer.  So if the mating takes place more or less at ovulation or thereafter, then there will be male puppies, as the eggs are there, and the male sperm reach them first.  If the mating occurs BEFORE ovulation, then there is more chance of female puppies, as the male sperm may have died off before reaching the eggs, while the female sperm are still hale and hardy.  However, this is obviously not something which breeders can manipulate because if it were, then we would all know about it!

I have now bred 23 litters, Total 137 pups, 53 males and 84 bitches.  38.7% Males to 61.3% bitches.

Only five of my litters have had more dogs than bitches.

My mother & I have now bred 11 litters in 50 years. 63 puppies, 32 males & 31 females...doesn't take a mathematician to work out that is 50/50

I'm going to count my litters and puppies.  I wonder how the ratio males/females will turn out.  I'll do that tomorrow. 

What about Prince songs, for names...?

Congratulations re safe arrival of puppies.
not heard if Kate pregnant rumours

What about Prince songs, for names...?

Got my names in place already.  See above! 

So I have decided to start with A again but this time English names, and have Artful Dodger (boy) and the 6 girls are Airy Fairy, all Things Nice, A Spring Flower, Ask Me Not, Aurora Nights, and April Dawn, all with my prefix of course.


Pretty names! 

I'm going to count my litters and puppies.  I wonder how the ratio males/females will turn out.  I'll do that tomorrow. 

I've just done this.  It comes out like this:

-43 litters

-175 puppies

-101 males

-74 females