Friday, October 31, 2014

Sibling pups with different mothers

Last Friday, I shared the story of "Victoria's victory". Three of her puppies died at birth, but she took over care of three of BethAnn's puppies in foster care. We received this update and video.



UPDATE FROM FOSTER CARE:
When BethAnn had 10 puppies and fellow doggie mommy, Victoria, had only 2, we gave Victoria 3 of BethAnn’s puppies. Victoria is a diligent mother providing hovering care. She seldom wants to be away from her babies for more than a few minutes. She is a small dog and appears to have just enough milk for her 5 pups. When last weighed they tipped the scales at just under 2# with one of her own biological pups being just over 1.5#. They started walking at 2.5 weeks and started eating some on their own at about the same time.

BethAnn has a vast amount of milk. Her puppies are rolly-polly. At 3.5 weeks they were barely walking, mostly just lying in their little bed waiting to be fed. At 4 weeks I forced them to leave their bed so they would start to do some walking and they began to eat a wee bit on their own. At 4 weeks they are not walking as well as Victoria’s were walking at 3 weeks. Each puppy weighs between 4 and 5#.

Remember, these puppies are biological siblings but being raised by different mothers. Ah, the old nature/nurture argument. What remains, is which is better, huge slow moving but happy puppies or active slim puppies, who also appear to be happy, though motivated. :-)



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