DragonRam Doodles: Six week update

Wow! Six weeks old already! In just one week the puppies will get their first vaccinations and veterinary check-up to make sure everyone’s all properly put together (beyond the obvious, of course!!).

Mama Galena is very much into weaning mode. She lets them nurse maybe 2-3 minutes in the morning and evening, and possibly once or twice more in the night time and during the day, but the sessions are short and she certainly doesn’t enjoy them – the pups nurse standing up underneath her and give her a bit of a rocking ride as they push up with their hungry mouths to get what good tasty milk they can. But their little teeth are sharp and within a few minutes she walks away and growls at them if they try to latch on again. During the day she most often growls at them to stay away and NOT BUG her. But when the whine and squeak, she still wants to go make sure they are okay, though she is no longer sleeping with them at night. (So when they squeak in the middle of the night and she wants to go check on them, guess who has to get up to let her into the puppy corner?)

Most of the pups are now over 2kg in weight, except for the littlest chocolate parti girl who is still only about 1800 grams. But all of them are growing and are eating the puppy kibble moistened with a bit of home-cooked broth and perhaps mixed with a bit of cooked chicken or hamburger, and a bit of canned dog food (Tripett). They already know that when I set down the large muffin tin, that’s their food and they gather round to chow down. They are drinking water and generally sleeping through most of the night (though, since we are not yet locking them in the crate at night, if they need to “go” they are free to head to the pee pad and do their business without any help). Once we start locking the crate at night – in a few days, once Mama goes home – they may very well be the once waking yours truly up in the middle of the night to “go” unless we give them a chance to do their business late at night.

The pups have now been outside every day since Saturday. The weather is still pretty good (above 0 at least) and they have a bit more meat and fur on them, so they can stand being outside for a while. We’ve taken them to the nearby parking lot on the weekend (when no one’s parking!) and let them run around, or just taken them out to the alley to run around (since the bit of yard we have is covered in snow). They also are going to the “poop deck” in the mornings and after eating to start them getting used to the idea of doing their business outside.

It is so much fun to watch them play! They wrestle, growl at each other, lick each other, pounce and run… This afternoon there was a streak of sunlight shining across the living room floor and caramel parti girl #1 was “playing” with it, going up to it and then backing off as if it were a little toy. Chocolate boy #1, on the other hand, just walked past and ignored it…