Gilda's perfect whelping and eight new blood tracking puppies

On Friday Gilda started to show signs that she'd be whelping soon. I was checking on her the following night but she was very quiet and calm in her whelping box, with the expression on her face - I am not ready yet.

Saturday morning came and we had to get up early as John was leaving at 7 am for the NY Bowhunters meeting. I had to the morning chores and every time I checked on Gilda, I could see that she was getting closer. Then finally at 9 am I came to the bathroom downstairs (this is Gilda isstaying) and gave her undivided attention. Her contractions started 5 minutes later. It almost looks like she was waiting for me!



It was a perfect whelping in every way. Pups were not too small or too large, her contractions were strong, and she was very calm and collected. The pups were very vigorous, ready to nurse right away (puppies' nursing stimulates more contraction). After the first few puppies Gilda started to eat, and she ate really well throughout the whole whelping. She certainly needed the energy to whelp eight puppies.





Puppies came in the sequence:
1. 9:25am - female (orange) 9.8 oz, 280 gr
2. 10:30 - male (sage) 12.4 oz, 350 gr
3. 11:10 - female (lime) 11.2 oz, 315 gr
4. 12:00 - male (green) 9.6 oz, 270 gr
5. 12:30 - female (cream) 12.8 oz, 365 gr
6. 1:10 pm - male (purple) 11.2 oz, 320 gr
7. 2:40 - female (pink) 12.0 oz, 340 gr
8. 4:10 - male (red) 9.6 oz, 270 gr

So now we have four girls and four boys ranging in size from 9.6 to 12.8 oz.



We are truly lucky to have easy whelpers and excellent mother such as Keena and Gilda.

As usually we will be reporting on pups' progress on this blog so stay tuned.