Puppies go outside for the first time

Today the weather warmed up enough to let the little guys outside 2 at a time and take some pictures.  The puppies were very unsure of themselves out in the yard, and stayed very close to me, so the photos are kind of rotten, but what can you do? 

The puppies are really starting to eat a variety of foods now!  Today their meals were:

1. sliced lamb heart, ground lamb, and ground chicken

2. small chunks of veal on the bone

3. baked yam, cottage cheese and canned tripe

They still like to nurse on Momma, but she wants that to happen about as much as she likes having a bath, which is not much!  She goes in to steal their food and toys, comes running if any of them emit the panic cry (she can tell the difference between war cries among the puppies and 'Ouch my head is caught between the bars'.)  A true mother at heart :)

Becoming work but still worth it

The easy part is clearly behind us now.  This morning it took 1 hour and 45 minutes from start to finish to feed them, entertain them, and clean/rearrange their pen.  That doesn't include laundry.  These little sweeties have begun to go through 4+ whole newspapers a day, 1-2 lbs of raw food a day, and require more entertaining and 1:1 attention now that they are older and more interactive.  Also, Curry has to be bribed or forced to go in and nurse them, as she seems to have lost interest now that they have sharp little teeth.

We have begun having visitors- our first were my chiropractor Dr Peter and his daughter, Nyla who is 4.  The next day we had Michelle and her 2 daughters Emily (14) and Amy (12).  The puppies love it!  They are not the least bit shy, and like being handled, cuddled and played with.

Saturday is our first open house for buyers, and I will be busy getting ready for that for the next day!  Keeping the house clean has dropped lower on the priority list than it used to be, and is tougher too since we have this litter of pups.

Graduating to collars!

Today I switched the pups from ribbons to collars.  I had bought collars to match all the ribbons I had weeks before they were born, so it wasn't much of an ordeal.  Those collars have been sitting around longer than there have been puppies.  For the most part, the colors are identical with 2 exceptions: Tikka went from a light green to teal, and Bhindi went from a dark purple to lilac.

Weights at 4 weeks old:

Bombay 4 lb 5 oz

Tandoori 4 lb 2 oz

Rogan Josh 4 lb 5 oz

Vindaloo 3 lb 10 oz

Mango 3 lb 4.5 oz

Chai 3 lb 6.5 oz

Bhindi 3 lb 8 oz

Tikka 3 lb 14 oz

Just out of curiosity

They have been eating 1 meal of puppy pudding a day for about 5 days now.  Still primarily nursing on Momma, but she seems to be having more trouble keeping up with their demand as time goes on.

Puppy Pudding

1 part Just Born dry puppy formula

1 part Milupa rice cereal for babies

1 part boiled or spring water

WEIGHTS for today

Bombay- 3 lb 8 3/4 oz

Tandoori- 3 lb 6 oz

Rogan Josh- 3 lb 7 3/8 oz

Vindaloo- 3 lb

Mango- 2 lb 11 oz

Chai- 2 lb 14 oz

Bhindi- 2 lb 14 oz

Tikka- 3 lb 2 1/2 oz

Weights at 3 weeks old

For anyone keeping up on weights, here they are for Day 22:

(I do a mini-servicing every 4 or 5 days which includes photographing them individually, removing or replacing their ribbons, clipping front and back nails, and weighing them.)

Bombay- 2 lb 15 oz

Tandoori- 2 lb 15.5 oz

Rogan Josh- 2 lb 15.5 oz

Vindaloo- 2 lb 9 oz

Mango- 2 lb 3 oz

Chai- 2 lb 9 oz

Bhindi- 2 lb 5 oz

Tikka- 2 lb 10 oz