Development of pups almost seems exponential now, the changes from week 3 to week 4 are huge, they are now stable on feet and moving around with purpose – plus able to play fight with each other. They have ditched the mashed food for just soft food, and now they have teeth, not quite the full blown set of piecing needles that pups are renown for, but a mini set, emerging which means they can pickup softened food easier than licking at mashed food. They have also spotted the water bowl, and now take delicate drinks of water, as well as experimenting by putting feet in the bowl! Now they are taking semi solids on top of Huntu’s milk it is important that they start increasing their water in take too, as they will of course transition away from Huntu’s milk over coming weeks. Huntu is certainly much less keen to let them feed constantly now, they have teeth – so who can blame her, so they are having 3-4 meals of softened food, plus pretty much free access to here but they now feed from her very quickly in bursts and then use her as climbing frame or play toy, chewing on her ears and paws.
Huntu was delighted to join the rest of the adult gang on her first walk in 4 weeks this weekend, personally I don’t take my bitches out when they are heavily involved in feeding a litter, as the calorific drain on the bitch is so huge when lactating, it is a lot to ask them to be able to run around on a proper dog walk too, and she will now have to build up her fitness levels slowly to be as active as she was before giving birth. It was a pretty cold walk, aroudn minus three according to the outside temperature recorded by the car and the dogs were in their element, and soon their coats were sporting cute frosty tips, apt given that Huntu’s full name Huurrehuntu means frosted veil, so took opportunity to get some cute photos of the gang (Matka was at home in the warm).
This weekend saw new faces for the pups, with visitors coming for puppy cuddles, the pups are very responsive to me, knowing my voice and smell, and so are happy to come when “called” and be handled, but new humans are another learning experience, but it doesn’t take them long to realise that all humans are safe and they are soon falling asleep, content on new laps.
Sorry for photo quality, but didn’t have time to grab photos in daylight – click on each thumbnail to see a larger version.
