Bristle had a girl and a boy Jan 13/05. On the right is a picture taken a couple of days before the birth where Bristle is getting used to the whelping pen again surrounded by her toys. As soon as the pups were born she focused on her kids and the toys were forgotten. The girl looks like she will be black and white and the boy is a tri coloured. The boy has lots of body colour just like mom. Bristle has plenty of milk for these two kids and they are solid as little rocks.
The pups are a week old now. The boy weighs 17 and the girl 16 oz.
The boy is on the right in all these pictures. With Bristle having only 2 pups they are getting a lot of milk and a lot of attention. The next major event will be their eyes opening at around 2 weeks. They are very active now but they belly crawl around. When their eyes open they will begin to really walk around.
The pups are 15 days old now. You can see the girls eyes are just starting to open. The boy's eyes will only be a day or two behind. They are also starting to get up on their forelegs more. By the time their eyes are open they will be staggering around on all fours. Next week I expect they will be really mobile and mom will be looking for a place to hide from their energy. In about 2 weeks mom will be looking to spend more time away from the pups beginning the weaning process. You can see the boy is going to be much bigger than the girl. He weighs 30 and she is 24oz. He has gained weight much quicker in the last week and their size difference increased daily.
Bristle's pups are 3 weeks old now. This is their first time out of the whelping pen. Amazingly, the boy did a little walk about. Usually they stay put and observe the first couple of times out. They get a little anxious after a couple of minutes and its time to go back with mom. They will come out for longer times each day now. At 4 weeks Bristle will probably start the weaning process and stay away from the pups longer. By 5 weeks the weaning will be complete and the crate trining will begin.
These pictures taken 2005/02/12 so the pups are just over 4 weeks old here. The last couple of days they have really begun to explore. They come out of their whelping pen for a while when Bristle goes out for her p&p. They are not speed demons yet but they are quickly getting their coordination and soon it will be hard to keep them out of trouble. Thats when the x-pen comes out and they spend more time in it each day. They will get their first solid food today. That will start the weaning process and should take a week to be fully separated from mom. The floors are pretty slippery and it took a while for the pups to master them. The first few times they would stand up and their hind legs would slide backwards. They would do this several times, steadily moving backwards along the floor. Thats why we start them on a blanket as in the previous pictures.
Pics taken Feb 22/05. The boy loves to help with chores. He always wants to know whats going on in the dishwasher. The little girl has started to hunt already and in the bottom middle picture she is staring down a ferocious lady bug. The lady bug is about an inch from her nose. The pups have been weaned from mom for a few days now and are taking a real liking to solid food.
