February 1: Punkin’s baby bump
Baby bump pictures! It takes a lot of food for such a tiny Mama to grow these babies, so her food dish–or under the table–is her favorite hangout place right now!
Babies are due any day now. A dogs gestation is 58-67 days long, about 9 weeks.
February 9: The 12th Man litter is here! Punkin had 4 sweet babies, 3 boys and 1 girl, two days after the Super Bowl. At the urging of our diehard Seattle Seahawks fans and to celebrate Emerald East’s Seattle roots, we’ve got the start of the world’s tiniest football team! Meet Wilson, Diggs, Flowers and Dickson!!
February 16, 1 week old. Puppies are nursing well and have all at least doubled in weight. Mama Punkin takes good care of them–bathing them with her tongue, snuggling them to keep them warm, and providing lots of milk! We took some pictures of them being held so you could get an idea of how big they are at 1 week. Still so tiny!
February 23, 2 weeks old. Their eyes are all open now! Not for long though–they do a lot of napping! Their colors are changing already. They are getting lighter underneath that dark red. It will be fun to see what colors they will end up being! We are doing neuro stimulation exercises with them everyday. It’s very simple and takes just a few seconds but has been shown to help puppies to adapt better their whole lives.
March 2, 3 weeks old: The puppies are really finding their legs now! A little wobbly still, but curious about what goes on outside of their bed. They set out on an exploration, but run out of steam quickly and have to stop for a nap. They’re playing together now too, wrestling and “biting” each other–no teeth yet though. We’re starting to hear occasional tiny barks and even growls when a sibling offends them. We’re introducing food, but they still get their main nourishment from Mama Punkin.
Mama Punkin usually eats while she nurses her puppies. She was eating and Flowers finished nursing and headed up to see what her Mama was doing. She even managed to snatch a few bites of her Mama’s food before it was gone!
They’re getting much more playful at 4 weeks! Diggs decided he had to pounce on Wilson to convince him to come and play.
Our 2 year old Chesapeake Bay Retriever (Tikka) loves to watch the puppies, and they are equally as curious about her!
March 16, 5 weeks old: They are definitely growing up and growing cuter every minute! They still love to wrestle and to “run”, though their tiny legs don’t take them anywhere very fast. They’re very curious and love to look at and smell new things. They played outside for the first time this week–for a couple of days until it snowed again! They also went on a little car ride. They have toys to play with in their pen right now and balls are their favorite, as well as anything that makes a crackly noise when you chew on it. They love it when Tikka is around and try to get her to play with them, which she wishes she could. They got to meet face to face outside and it was great fun for all of them!
March 23, 6 weeks old: They’re definitely hitting their cutest age now! They’re so curious and love to explore new things. They wrestle and do some practice barks and growls now. They eat real puppy food and only nurse once in a while if their Mama lets them. She definitely feels it’s getting time for them to be done though! Thankfully the weather has been nice enough to take them outside for “puppy play time” as we call it. They love the new smells, sticks and leaves but still stick pretty close to their Mama and their people. They got to play outside in the rain this week too! They’ve gone on a couple of car rides and a “walk” in the park (but we carried them the whole way). At the end of their adventures they still love to snuggle together in their bed and nap.
(I don’t know why some of the thumbnails aren’t showing up but the rest of the pictures will show up if you click on one of the pictures and advance through the gallery).
March 30, 7 weeks old: Puppies are more active than ever! They hit the ground running and only let up when they’re about to fall asleep! They’re showing their different personalities a lot now and we’re working hard to make sure they experience a variety of situations and people. We even did a short trip to Homegoods this week!
April 6, 8 weeks old: The puppies had a good week! We’ve done lots of playing outside and most of them got to meet their new families! They got to hear thunder–it didn’t seem to bother them–play with water bottles, meet Bella’s babies, and they continue to get snuggle time every day. They’re very happy to see their humans, and lick them enthusiastically to greet them. Mama Punkin still likes to spend some time with them, but definitely says no to nursing now. Our sweet little snugglers are very interested in discovering the world and their curiosity knows no bounds!
Tikka, our 2 year old Chessy, and Flowers dearly love each other. Flowers constantly tries to follow Tikka when they’re together, and Tikka tries to get Flowers to play with her.
Flowers, Dickson and Diggs are playing in the leaf pile. They love to make a little cave in it and pop out at each other!
