I have a heat pad from Warrick... a medium pad.

How does one use heat pads?  Do I just plug it in and let the pups find it by themselves if cold?  Do I put them on it if they are trying to huddle? Do I leave it on all the time, or only at night, or only in the first few days?  (This summer.) 

At what point can you stop using the heat pad?  (When eyes open?  When they start to toddle about more?) 

Thanks for heat pad information!

The Warwick ones adjust themselves to be a constant temperature correct for puppies. So presumably there will be no heat if it's already warm enough. My pups are 14 days old today and I switched the pad off yesterday. Have windows open and a fan in here too as it's so warm. Pups are still spread out rather than huddled together.  Normally I'd use the heat pad for about 3 weeks.

Pups are unable to regulate their own body temperature for the first 3 weeks of life.  If they get cold they are unable to gain any nourishment from mum.  I have used a heat pad for all my litters and have had bitches want the pad themselves for 6 weeks!  But it is a very small breed.  I find that pups are drawn to the heat when mum moves away from them.  I have my pads on 24/7.  I realise that larger breed bitches will move away from the heat.  And I once had to buy an a/c unit for a bitch one very hot summer and I don't even have it for myself! 

I only ever use Petnap but some people think the pad isn't warming up, the heat is dependent on the weight of pups.  It warms up once they are lying on it. I only ever take it off at 21 days if they don't seem drawn to it.

I have floor heating.  Even though the floor does not feel warm to the touch, this does seem to mean that my newborns are pretty OK in their box with Mum.  I've had more trouble with too hot puppies (whenever I've put a heating pad in the box with them) than the other way around.  Depending on the weather, on your house, etc. I think you have to play it a bit by ear.  Be sure that everybody can move away from the heat pad if they so wish.  And just observe them.  Naturally be careful that there are no drafts.

I have an under bedding one that covers about a third of the whelping box so they can choose whether they want it or not, usually they don't seem interested. I also have a microwavable heat pad which I can put in if needed.

In over 25 years I have never used a heat pad, mum and babies have a wooden whelping box covered over with a blanket attached to the top of the box so it doesn't fall in, thick layers of newspaper and one or two layers of vetbed, all litters were in a centrally heated house and generally during the summer.  You will know if puppies are not warm enough or hungry as they will huddle together and be noisy, if they are too hot which mine generally were then they all spread out, I did find my big, coated breed mum taking the vetbed out because she was too warm, I used to put it back but she always had her way in the end. Even my fine coated hounds never seemed to be anything other than contented, it is true that puppies can't regulate their temperature early on but I think that most people's houses are plenty warm enough, I have never had toy dogs though and heat may well be needed for them. A friend of mine had a husky bitch and asked me why she would not stay in the box for very long and seemed to be neglecting her puppies, when I went over to see her there was a heat lamp about 2 foot above the puppies and mum was frying. I nearly had a fit as these particular lamps are not meant for puppies and could have burnt mum and puppies quite badly, it went out in the shed there and then

I don't think I will be using a heat pad this time either. It will be in but not switched on. The room is currently 26 degrees and my last litter were screaming in that much heat - much preferring it to be around 22/23 degrees at night and even lower during the day, baring in mind that this was a Christmas litter. I dread to think how mum will cope with the vet bed etc as she is obviously too hot now.

My husband, despite his faults, really impressed me yesterday by buying me an air conditioning unit. Being diabetic and having recently had my insulin changed, I collapsed on monday morning. This has never happened before and he thought I was messing about. Thankfully he was still home and I hadn't locked the bathroom door. The same thing happened at the diabetic clinic yesterday and the consultant confirmed it was a panic attack due to heat and not sugar levels. I don't do too well in hot temperatures and would happily live in a fridge given the choice. He will be picking it up tomorrow and setting it up in the bedroom but as we are all on one level and the doors stay open, I am hoping the air will circulate throughout the house with the help of the ceiling fans.....happy days :)

> I don't do too well in hot temperatures and would happily live in a fridge given the choice.

How lovely to hear.  Early in the year when everyone was freezing I would happily go outdoors in a T-shirt.  Guess who doesn't go abroad for holidays.

Jean I swear we are two peas in a pod....

I have been for my 2nd shower today and will most likely have another when I get back from dog club...I'm called 'the heater' around these parts as I have been known to walk out in flop flops while there is snow on the ground!

Even when we go to India, I refuse to go anywhere during the day and get this....specified to my father that I would only marry a man who could afford air conditioning or stay single all my life when he was trying to find me a suitable match...

I join you in your love of "coolth".  I am not getting old, I AM old (if I say my age nobody will want to talk to me anymore), and I detest the heat.  I think I should have lived in Skandanavia.  Anyhow, I am very peculiar indeed because I love it when the days start to get shorter. I adore the autumn: the quiteness, the rest from the heat and from all the demands of the garden, and the privacy that earlier darkness brings with it.  Call me weird...

I always use a heat pad nowadays. IMO regardless of the weather you have to keep a watchful eye that a puppy does not get chilled. When wet from being washed by Mum and in the early days this can happen very quickly.
I leave the heat mad on continuously but start switching it off for hours at a time from about 2 weeks if it is warmer weather.
It does not cover the whole whelping area anyway and they will move away if they need to.

I prefer the cold to the heat, but do like sunny days as we have today in Suffolk, but it's really a bit too warm, there is a nice sea breeze.
My idea of a perfect holiday is a trip round the Norwegian fjords in winter, husband would like to go in the summer.

Don't go overboard - we have few enough warm days here in the UK as it is.

> IMO regardless of the weather you have to keep a watchful eye that a puppy does not get chilled. When wet from being washed by Mum and in the early days this can happen very quickly

Which is why I always use one until pups are able to regulate their own body heat.  After that it's up to them to tell me what is needed.

I have a petnap heat pad that's on 24/7, they gravitate towards it if they feel chilly, if ones wet from some over enthusiastic cleaning I tend to put them on it myself if the pups left on its own.
I also have a little microwaveable one for during whelping....I hate to see them nicely drying and then getting soaked again from birthing fluids so make this available to keep them warm and dry while mums preoccupied with the next birth.

I take the petnap one out when they can regulate their temperatures and don't lie on it more than they do....

I have a heat pad and a heated bed for puppies.  My last two litters were in winter so they were strategically placed so puppies could use it or not.  That said, I had a very large pen so they could move about freely.  Sometimes they huddled together on the pad and at other times the would leave it.  Sometimes only one or two would use it whilst the others didn't bother.  With my first litter, I used to check how warm they felt to the touch and if they felt chilled, I would put them in the heat bed.  I would throw a towel over the top of them and they loved it...until Mamma came looking for them and couldn't find them and she ended up crawling into the bed with them!!  It was hilarious to watch.

I plan to do what you describe Charlie Brown - I have 3 microwaveable heat pads, that I'll put under a blanket in the box the pups are in when the next one is being delivered, and I have an electric Warrick one for the whelping box itself.