Puppies get into Mielikki's food!

Another video of Mielikki shot yesterday. We feed our dogs premium dry food and raw diet, mainly venison and raw mixes that we buy from Omas Pride. I would have never considered Mielikki a fussy eater...until she got pregnant. Two weeks into her pregnancy she stopped eating dry food altogether and showed a clear preference for "real food". She has access to dry kibble in case she gets hungry, but most of the time she does not touch it. The video shows puppies' reaction to Mielikki's food.

Weaning has begun

I was away for five days and got back last night. John took a really good care of the pups when I was gone - thank you John! He moved them from my den to the adjacent room, where he set up a pen with wood chips. Now pups can use their whelping box as their bed and play area, while the pen with wood chips serves as a bathroom. Even at such a young age puppies have a good instinct not to soil their bed, and they try to go to bathroom as far away as they can from their sleeping area.

Today we introduced pups to raw diet (Omas Pride ground mix),  and they loved it. So now we have started a gradual process of weaning. Paika is still very good with the pups, but they have sharp teeth and nursing cannot be comfortable for her.

Pups turn eight weeks old

Today it was raining almost all day  so pups spent some time indoors. We introduced them to raw turkey necks, and oh boy, they acted like little piranhas.

Tomorrow pups are going to be eight weeks old. Yesterday they worked a fresh liver drag and all of them were really good.We are very happy with this litter.

Tommy as a puppy-sitter

Paika has not had any contact with the pups for the last three days as we got serious about weaning them. Next weekend there is a field trial in New Jersey, and I would like to take her along. She is not happy about not being able to be with them but we have no choice. At this age pups certainly are able to be weaned completely. Now they get three meals a day - for breakfast it is raw meat mix, afternoon it is a canned food and in the evening they eat dry kibble. This way they will be able to handle a variety of foods.

Yesterday I asked Tommy (FC Tom vom Linteler-Forst) to spend some time with Paika's puppies. Even though he is three and a half years old, he is still very playful and puppy-like. He was really good with the pups and they had a ball. There was a lot of running, chasing, digging and jumping!

Almost weaned

Both litters are almost weaned. Both Gilda and Keena showed signs of being uncomfortable while pups were nursing and started to snap at them. Most pups have their teeth out so they are ready to make a complete switch! Right now they get 3-4 meals a day, depending on our schedule. They are fed Omas Pride http://www.omaspride.com/ raw turkey and chicken mixes, Canidae or Eagle Pack canned food, and soon we will introduce dry kibble. We also have several bags of frozen chicken necks, and we will start feeding them next week. The necks will be handy when we start crating pups for an hour or two. Pups are familiar with a crate now as there is a crate in each of their pens, and they go there on their own to take naps. But the time is coming to start putting each pup to a crate. With some litters there is no problem with crate training at all, but with others pups take some time to get used to it.

Of course Geico has been most advanced when it comes to diet and sleeping by himself  because we had to handle him separately from other pups and moms. He has been eating on his own for several weeks now, and he has been sleeping by himself in our kitchen. I would have never expected myself to respond to this puppy the way I do. He is so bright and affectionate that it is very hard not to get bonded to him. We still don't know what exactly his problem might be. He continues to weigh around 50% of what his siblings weigh, but differences do not end in the size only. His limbs are quite long, bones are thin, and he seems to lack any fat (no matter how much he eats). He likes to lie next to our fridge, in a warm spot on the tile floor. The other day I saw a program on TV "Born Different", and one of the children showed in the program has a condition called primordial dwarfism. You can see a youtube video on Kenadie here. Well, I can see similarities in Kenadie and Geico's conditions. Next week Jeff Springer, DVM, is coming here to breed Tilly so we'll see what he thinks. I am sure that there are many abnormalities that might manifest themselves in a reduced size. Well, we don't know what future holds for Geico, but we both really enjoy him.

Update on Remi (Olive v Moosbach-Zuzelek)

We received a very nice update on Remi (Emma and Joeri's daughter whose registered name is Olive).

Matt wrote:

Hello John and Jolanta,
Remi is settling into her new surroundings, and has found Freedom to be a great playmate. Freedom has been very gentle and really enjoys her new companion.

Only once was there a little bickering, and it was from Remi. I wasn't paying attention and Freedom approached Remi when she was playing with a buck tail. Remi let out quite a warning and Freedom got the message and walked away. It is very interesting to see the change in her personality when Remi is in "hunt mode." She definitely takes on a different tone around anything that smells like deer.
After the raw venison dinner each night, she will walk back and forth to the laundry room, where I hand feed each dog, for 15 minutes with her nose from the ground to the air trying to figure out where the bucket of meat has gone. She is taking to the raw diet with eggs, bananas, oat meal, yogurt, etc. pretty well, but dinner is definitely her favorite... :)

She's had a few accidents in the house, but is getting better. She has no problem holding her bladder in her crate all night, and she doesn't seem to mind her crate at all.

We've done two liver drags, each about 75 yards with a couple turns. Neither was a challenge, each time she found the prize in under a minute. Truly amazing to watch!
She seems to like the lake, but hasn't ventured in far enough to swim yet.


This picture was taken when Peg and Matt picked Remi up. You can see John, Peg holding Remi, and Jolanta.