No puppies for Keena

We took Keena to a vet to check how many puppies she is carrying. There are none, so it looks like we will have just one litter this year out of Paika and Moose (due around April 6).

I am not sure what happened with Keena, she looked pregnant at 6 weeks, and this is when we started to increase her food portions. Now, apparently, she is just fat. We probably bred her too late as we were waiting for lab results. She was diagnosed with lyme and anaplasmosis earlier this winter and was treated with doxycycline. We were double checking that it was OK to breed her (and it was), but we must have missed a right date.

Unfortunately and coincidentally, this is the third "missed" breeding in working wires that I know about this spring. I hope it's the last one.

Now Keena is going to go on a diet and will be running rabbits instead of licking puppies' bottoms.

We expect two new litters of wirehaired dachshunds really soon!

In 2012 we are going to have two litters of puppies.

Keena came in heat on January 15, and we bred her to FC Tom vom Linteler-Forst on January 26 and 27. She should be delivering around March 28. If everything goes well (and with dog breeding you never know) pups would be going to their new homes around June 2-10.

Keena is almost seven years old, and this is going to be her last litter. She was examined by a vet prior to the breeding, had her full blood panel and x-ray done, and everything looks very good. She was declared to be in superb health and got a green light from our vets for breeding.

This is going to be our "T" litter.  Tommy does not have the gene for short coat so we expect all the pups to have wirehaired coats.

This picture was taken on March 20. It does not look like Keena carries a lot of puppies, I would say 3 or 4. We have an appointment with a vet on Monday, March 26, to check how many puppies she will be having.

Paika came in heat on January 24, and we  bred her on February 3 and 5. This is a repeat breeding of our very successful S-litter sired by FC Nurmi v Moosbach-Zuzelek (aka Moose) owned by Chuck Collier, MI. Paika's pups from this litter will have "U" names. Paika does not have the gene for short coat so we expect all the pups to have wirehaired coats.

These pictures were taken on March 20. Paika still has more than two weeks to go in her pregnancy. My estimate is that she will have 5-6 puppies, but of course I might be wrong!

Q-puppies are one day old but it is Keena who is being pampered

Keena's puppies are one day old. So far so good. Keena is an exceptional mother, and I am sure that the first few days must be very difficult for her. She has to come up with logistics of dealing with so many pups. Elli, who used to have very large litters, usually would divide pups into smaller groups that would be nursing separately. Also the potential problem is that Keena has only 6 fully functional teats.

My approach to puppies is that you you have to have a healthy, well fed, energetic mother, then most likely pups will be OK. If she has good instincts, she will take care of her pups. So today is all about pampering Keena. I make sure that she eats frequent high protein, high calcium meals, and that she drinks quite a bit.Her appetite is very good.  I check her temperature for any signs of infection. With large litters bitches are more prone to metritis, inflammation of uterus. I remember many years ago when Sabina had 10 puppies and developed metritis. We ended up hand feeding all 10 puppies. This is something I want to avoid at all costs, and if there are any signs that her temperature gets elevated significantly, she will be put on antibiotic Clavamox.

Anyway, puppies are doing well, they have not gained much weight since they were born, but this is very typical for newborns. I would be concerned if they started to lose weight but so far that has not happened. I weigh them often, and check if they are hydrated. If they are not, I make sure that I put them on a teat and they nurse.

Keena's whelping box is in my den so I am with her almost all the time. We are expecting another litter within next few days, and I know that by the time Gilda has her puppies, Keena will require less of my attention.

How our Q litter (9 puppies) was born

Today is a good time to resume posting here as we have a new litter of pups.On March 22 Keena (FC Keena v Moosbach-Zuzelek) was bred to FC Joeri vom Nonnenschlag. We did only one mating, and Joeri and Keena were tied for one hour.

Keena's pregnancy was very uneventful. Since she has had two litters before, with seven pups in each litter, we have had some information on what we might expect. In the past her pups were quite big and even though she never had much problem with whelping them, I decided to change her diet this time around. She was fed our dogs' regular diet until her last trimester. This means - Canidae for All Life Stages dry kibble in the morning and Oma's Pride raw mixes in the afternoon. Since Oma's mixes have a lot of ground bone in them, I tried to reduce the content of calcium in the food by adding ground turkey to to the mix. In the last trimester I added one more meal - a dry kibble with a higher content of protein. This protocol seemed to have worked really well.

We knew that Keena was going to have quite a few pups, I thought that the number would be 7 or 8. We did not xray her to verify the number, so we were surprised when she delivered 9 pups in 4.5 hours.

The first pup was delivered at 6:30 this morning, and the last one at 11:05 am. This was the sequence:

1. 6:30 am Male (green) 8.2 oz/230 gr

2. 7:05 am Female (pink) 12.0 oz/340 gr

3. 7:25 am Female (yellow) 10.4/295

4. 7:50 am Male (red) 8.2/230

5. 8:25 am Female (white) 11.6/330

6. 9:10 am Male (navy) 8.8/250

7. 9:25 am Female (lime) 8.8/250

8. !0:20 am Male (blue) 10.6/330

9. 11:05 am Female (orange) 8.2/230

I took some pics at the beginning of whelping, but later things were happening too fast. When Keena and I were done with one puppy, the next one was being delivered. Actually, I have never seen anything like it.

All pups are wild boar, and all their registered names will start with the letter Q. How are we going to come up with NINE Q-names?

Keena and her eight-week-old puppies

Keena's puppies will be eight week old tomorrow. As the picture shows, they have grown a lot.

Keena still spends some time with her pups daily. If they get out of hand, she quickly puts them in their place.

They compete for her attention!

Update on Keena's puppies

Keena's pups, now five weeks old, are being weaned. We feed them 3-4 times a day, and for now we have limited their access to Keena. We have cut down her food drastically.

Pups are large and heavy. Yesterday their weights were:

Males Green 2340 g, Red 2140 g, Blue 1930 g, Navy 1875 g

Females - Pink 2000 g, Yellow 1915 g, White 1800 g.

Pups spend their nights in the whelping box attached to the box with wood chips. During the day they are usually outside, when the weather allows it. They have been exposed to deer hide, and get to play with deer legs. Now it is time to introduce deer blood...

Pictures of Keena and her puppies

Puppies are four and a half weeks old now. Keena is quite patient with them but they are getting to be a handful. She certainly set some boundaries. Her favorite toy is off limit, even though pups try really hard to get access to it. When they go too far, she raises her lip and she growls.

There is a lot of play fighting going on. This is an important part of puppies' development and education.

Keena's pups are almost four weeks old

On Monday Keena's pups will be four weeks old; they are six days older than Gilda's pups. Several days ago we rearranged whelping boxes. Keena's pups got move to the family room, next to my den. Now they are in a smaller whelping box, which is attached to the pen with wood chips. Gilda's pups are in a larger whelping box in my den.

P-puppies are not ready to use the chips yet but they will start doing it this coming week. Giving the pups a separate bathroom area will help them follow their instincts not to soil their bed. This is a good start to housebreaking training.

This coming week we will also introduce the pups to raw diet and will start a gradual weaning process. Also this is a good time to start handling pups separately from their littermates.

Keena is an excellent mother but she is a bit tired of the pups. She cleans them very well and nurses them (their bellies are round), but other than that she prefers not to have contact with them. No wonder as the pups are large and strong, there are many of them, and their teeth are coming out now.

Puppies' big appetites

Keena's pups are almost three weeks old, and they have big appetites. So far they have been getting all their nourishment from Keena. In about 5-6 days we will start supplementing them with puppy formula so this will take some pressure off her. Now she goes to the whelping box only to clean and nurse pups, who are ready to mob her anytime she comes in. The pups are quite big and heavy so no need to feel sorry for them!

Keena and her puppies

Today Keena's puppies are two weeks old. They are quite mobile, and their eyes are open.

Their appetite is voracious, and their weight is

Males:

Green - 955 gr
Navy - 895 gr
Light blue - 895 gr
Red - 935 gr

Females:
Pink - 1010 gr
Yellow - 845 gr
White - 730 gr