My Staffordshire Bull Terrier bitch is now four and a half weeks pregnant, and i am becoming something of a neurotic mother! I have had her scanned and she is due to have 3/4 puppies, a good size for a first litter. We want to keep one of the puppies, but are unsure whether it would be a good idea to take another female, though i prefer them. My bitch is very gentle, and has never been shown because she exhibites too much timidity - she tends to try and run away from other dogs! She has a fantastic pedigree, and has been line bred. I would like to show her offspring, and prefer females. If careful can 2 staffy bitches work in 1 house?
Any and all advice would be much appreciated.

Welcome to the forum Cleopatra :-) Leigh

Hi Cleopatra

My friend bred her first litter of Staffies last year she had 8 in the litter; 6 girls and 2 boys. She kept a girl and mother and daughter are getting on very well. She was tempted to keep one of the boys as well as he was so nice, but she thought that keeping a dog and bitch together would be difficult at times especially when the bitch came into season.

I have other friends with Staffies and they have mothers and daughters and they all seem to get on fine.

If you would like further advice e-mail me privately by clicking on my name and I will give you their details so that you can contact them.

I hope this helps :)

Derryn

a friend of mine shows staffs, she has several generations and sisters of some living together, BUT the males shes much more careful of together and cant mix certain ones-a lot depends on you and how firm you are-wether they see you as boss and wouldnt want to upset you!:)

Hello!

I cannot claim to have any experience with your breed, I have Cavaliers myself. I have one girl here from whom I have kept two daughters from different litters (I.E Half Sisters) this girl is very close indeed to both of them, in fact if I see one of them the other two are right behind her! I have NEVER had any problems whatsoever with these three girls in terms of behaviour towards each other. In fact I would say that you will have fewer problems keeping a daughter of your bitch rather than bringing in an unrelated female, maternal instincts if you like!! This girls one daughter has just turned five and yet will still go to her mum for comfort if she gets upset!

On the flip side of the coin however, your girl may have a litter of all boys and make your decision for you!!

But from my own experience I would say Yes, keep a daughter from her you should have very few problems with that! Hope this is of help to you.

Cathryn

hi
well i should say that you would be better keeping a girl of hers than bring one in as you said she is not the best with other dogs and well this one she will know very well, and haveing kept two daughters from diffrent litters as well, they all gaet in very well, (but this time i have kept a male and well his dad does not like him! sorry not the point)
and yes i do have Staffords,
Bobby
let us know how you get on

I really think Dizzy is right. It is all down to your firmness.
My bitches know i will not stand for squabbling, never let them
start the behaviour and you will have no problem. I do not have
staffys but my breed are very stubborn as anyone will tell you who have
watched the little so and so"s at shows. Lancashire Heelers

Thanks for all your advice everyone, I think I'll just go on the whole temprament issue, rather than worry about sex from now on. My bitch (Cleo) is really good with other dogs and has never shown agression so it should be OK.
Can anyone Let me know a good design foe a whelping box?
And tell me if a stafford should start to show her pregnancy at this time, Cleo still has a nipped in waist, and only looks porky when lying on her back! I have just read some of the other postings and have become paranoid that her scan was incorrect - I thought scans were pretty much fool-proof, not for the size of the litter, but as sign that a litter is really in there!! The vet showed me little black round sack-things with a little white dot in them - have you had experience of this?
As you can probably tell I am becoming generally slightly irrational - am already very attached to these puppies!

I get a laminated large set of draws you can pickthem up from second hand shops really cheap. make sure to give it a good disinfecting.
Take out draws and lay the back on the floor. you can add a top if
required. then i line with loads of news paper and fleece on top.
Works great. I screw one of the draw fronts to the front so pups can not get out. I really don"t believe the plastic ones you can buy work any better. And when i have finished with it i throw away.

I myself use a znooze and snack 3 feet square puppy pen which has a plastic base. I line the sides of this with cardboard, and use an old bedspread attached over the top and sices to make a cave, I use a heat pad in one corner for the pups, but my breed don't like it for long. The front has a half panel to alow the bitch to jump in. Once the pups are up and walking, I rearrange things attaching a 3 foot Crate to one end for their bed, and use the pen part as their playpen.

Really it all depends on what suits you. The traditional open tray whelping box with pig rails to prevent crushing is good for heavy or clumsy breeds, but l;acks cosinesss, but is good for the owner to see, and can have a lamp hung over the top

I use the oval beds that you can buy in any pet shop, turn the entrance bit to the wall, so the pups dont plop out. I line with newspaper and vet bed, and sometimes put a couple of new bricks at the front, on the floor against the outside of the bed to stop the bitch pushing it away from the wall. I like them because they are completely disinfectable { is that a word? :-)} and they suit me and my dogs. I know that enclosed beds as opposed to tray type beds are suposed to be better, but I like to be able to see the mum and pups rather than having to remove lids all the time - just my preference. I dont buy the ones with the ventilation holes in the base as I have heard that puppies can get their toes/nails caught in them. You will need quite a big one, but I have tried other sorts of beds and always go back to using these. Still if someone would like to buy me a Snowsilk one for a pressie - I wouldn't say no!

Do you think a large cardboard box as a whelping box is OK for the first few weeks or so, after they can move around they will get a whole room ( though it is quite small admittadly!) which can be shut off from the main room by a peice of wood, so that Cleo can get in and out easily. The box can be made quite cosy, and has the benefit of being coverable or not - though i know she doesn't really like enclosed spaces - BUT it is not disinfectable (to steal your word westie lover!), is this massively important?

It would be fine. get a few of the same boxes so you can exchange
them for hygene. The only problem is when pups start chewing you
should change to a more suitable bed.
I change to a cage at 4 weeks and cover with a blanket.

my whelping box is an warbrobe made of conti board which i have removed the doors and lay on its back theres a divider in the middle which can be easily removed (by a human) and a siding door into the whole box
its great wipes down very easily and the sides are high enough for the escapees and it also is easy for me to pop it upright and store it in a corner it has wheels on it so i can transport it easily.
It does it job and isnt chewed YET.
Vicki

Just like i said about the set of draws. The best way is always the simple
to acheve just use a little imagination.

Hi
you said that she was about 4.5 weeks and is not showing well my stafford bitch did not show on her first litter until she was about 6 weeks as she was only haveing 3 but on her second litter 18 months later she had 6 but did not start to show untill she was 5 weeks so she should be OK and scans should be right.

Bobby

Thanks for all your input again. I would love to use chest of drawers etc for whelping box, but as i live in london, don't think i could find anything cheap, yet decent - just doesn't seem to exist here!

Thanks Bobby, you helped put my mind at ease, in the future i shall try not to be so neurotic!!

If whelping happens at night is cleo likely to wake me, she will be all set up in her whelping room, which is only a room away from my bedroom. We have decided to put her hear as can be separated from the rest of the house, and our mad bengal cat!!
How are Staffords with their puppies, just been to doggy website and read about mums eating their babies, is this normal/common?
And finally, when is the best time to let puppies go to their new homes. I have read 7 weeks, but kennel club say 8 weeks. I got cleo when she was only 6.5 weeks old, and though i was overjoyed to be able to take her then i thought it a bit early. Staffords are so titchy when they're that young!

If any of you have any other advice on the whelping/rearing puppies front i'd be very grateful to hear it.

THANKS AGAIN FOR ALL YOUR HELP.

Hi, a good indication of when she is going to whelp is her temperature. Normal is 101.5 and the temp always drops a few degrees before whelping, to 99 or 98 degrees. If you take her temp, twice a day from the 58th day after her first mating, you will notice that it will start to drop as she gets near to labour. Once it has dropped to 99 degrees, keep a close eye on her, and if it drops through the day towards bedtime, but there are no other signs - digging and tearing bedding and panting - get set to sleep on the sofa with an alarm clock and get up every two hours and watch her for about 20 minutes to see if she is in labour. If you can peep at her without her seeing you, so much the better and you will get a true indication of what is going on. The first stage - like us- can just be a few hours or 12 or more hours. Often the day before they lie stretched out on their sides and most ( but not all) will refuse food before the great event, so if she starts to refuse food you can be fairly sure she will "start" within the next 24 hours. Taking the temp is easy, put a blob of vaseline on the end and insert into the bottom , twisting gently as you go, an inch or inch and a half . Hold her still by holding the base of her tail, and someone holding her head if you think she will struggle, though most dont. Its a pretty foolproof method of knowing whatis happening.

Hi
i have staffs yes like westie lover said i find nearly all the litters i have had that the staffs tend to go to first matting date and i always go by the bitches tep the norm for a staff in pup is around 37.7 and will drop to 36.6 up to 12 hours before pupping i always sit up the night with a bich thats welping the main prob for staffs is if the pups are to large for the bich so if she hasent delivered her first pup arfter two hours from the start of her pushing down ,then please call your vet and he will advise you as if left to long you could be putting mum and pups at risk,
But most of the time the biches pass there pups with no probs its just somethink to wach out for,staffs make realy good mums i have never heard or seen a staff attack her pups there very loving mums,
eg i had a litter about 3 years ago and it was a first time mum she had 6 pups a freind had a bulldog litter at the same time bully had no milk and pups were not doing well on bottle,
So we thought we would see how cassie my bitch would take to pups she took on the bulldog pups and reared these as well as her own ok we did give them odd bottles as well as she had the 6 of her own and didnt want to put on here to much be she cared and clean them like her own hope this helps you.
ps i have a mum and her 3 girls her daughters are now 2 years old, feal free to email or call if anythink you wish to know hopefully i can help.

She comes from a good whelping line so there shouldn't be any problems on that front. My main concern was being able to identify when the whole thing was going to take place, so thanks for clearing that one up for me. It seems i shall be in for a good few nights on the sofa, at which point cleo will probably go and sleep in my bed! I've pretty much got every thing sorted now, and as many pepole have told me, i even have the wine cellar well stocked!!
She has started to show now, it happened over night, and now she looks like a barrel when she sits down - still quite narrow at the waist though. However, she is absolutely ravenous, eating all her food the minute it is put down - this is very unusual as she is a very picky eater. I am now feeding her twice a day, but haven't upped the amounts, though she is now on growth food. She has been wormed once, and due again next week (i am not worming her every day from 50th-odd of pregnancy as my vet felt this to be a bit harsh). I do not want to over-feed her (she has suddenly become very lazy to, its a struggle to get her out for even an hours exercise, she just wants to sleep!) but she seems hungry all the time - any ideas? The vet said he'd put money on there being only 4 in there as well!

ive seen in a few american books i have that some use those inflaitable paddling pools ,probably great until they get teeth, ive also seen pictures of pups lying with their dams inside the ridgid plastic sand pit things, both of these options i should think will be available from the likes of argos. -good luck with your litter. mines at the four and a half week stage, really starting to get characters, playing with toys etc,

Someone with more knowledge than I may want to touch on another warning sign of trouble; if after going into labor you notice green colored fluid on her bedding or her fur. In my own experiences, this has always been a stuck puppy and need for a vet.

In regards to worming a bitch that's pregnant I have heard that you should not. Either do it before the planned litter or after the pups are a few weeks old.
Anyway it really isn't necessary to worm them more than every three months (at least that's what I've been told). Of course heartworm perventative is okay and should be given every month.

Just wanted to give everybody an update as you've all been so helpful, though ther's really nothing to report!
I've managed to calm down an awful lot, everything is prepared. A carpenter friend of mine offered to make up a whelping box for me, so thats on the way, I have been shopping and bought out most of the pet shop, not to mention boots as well. I have also been trying my hand at the whole sewing malarkey, and now have 2 lovely fake sheepskin, aborbant inner plastoc backed whelping blankets - i am someting of a protective mother!
She goes for her final scan in little over a week, and i am now very excited! I seem to be able to think of little other than little puppies (though i do realise that it's not all fun and cuteness), and my studies are suffering hugely - oh well never mind, who needs a masters anyway!
I am beginning to waffle now, but i shall keep you all posted, and attempt to set up a little web-site of pictures when the time comes.
Thanks again to you all, i can't tell you how great its been to have such a "support network" ( i apologise, my family are psychotherapists!) to help me, and i'm not even the one whose preggers. Cheers!