Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Foster faster

After waving goodbye to Smelly and Shenzi I had intentions of more time running and training at the gym during the week, leisurely holidays and plenty of outdoor sports on the weekends...  My break from fostering lasted a whole 6 days and was abruptly halted on Sunday afternoon, by the arrival of an African Tails rescued mum and her 7 puppies.  


We have an unoccupied granny flat on our property so the family are in there enjoying peace, quiet, warmth and plenty of food.

The pups are 3 weeks old, they can walk but don't go very far from the bed.  Mostly just to their mum when they want to feed.  I decided to weigh them so I can track their weight gain and make sure they are all getting plenty of food.  I used my housemates posh kitchen weighing scales and a plastic hat to put the dogs in.  It wasn't sturdy enough, the fat one squashed it... then one of them wee'd in it.


I weighed them on day 1 (Sunday) and again last night, here is the tale of the tape:  The fat one pictured above is 'Female - White, black stripe'.  Due to their quality breeding no two look alike, this makes the weigh-in easier...

AFRICAN TAILS PUPPY WEIGHTS - Approx birth date - 01 July 2011, Arrival 24 July 2011






SEX
DESCRIPTION
24-Jul-11
25-Jul-11
% Inc

Male
Black, white toes
1584
1692
6.8%

Male
White
1256
1307
4.1%

Male
Grey / Brown
1595
1607
0.8%

Male
Grey, white stripe
1622
1650
1.7%

Female
White, black stripe
2065
2080
0.7%

Female
Black
1370
1384
1.0%

Female
Black, white face stripe
1533
1609
5.0%


Average pup weight
1575
1618



(Dont laugh at my excel geekiness) - as the saying goes "you cant track progress without measurement"




















Argh!  The spreadsheet has stuffed up my page editing, I have all of this white space and cant get rid of it.  I give in... Enjoy the pictures below, rest of the text at the bottom (f*cking excel!)



























 





Deep breath.... and calm... right, back to it.  

The mum is very attentive and from my limited knowledge seems like a great mum, it is quite impressive to see her mothering the pups, she checks on them, rolls over to feed them, noses them along and over things, cleans the den, licks their bums clean etc.  She gets fed up of them every now and again and has some mummy time in Smelly / Shenzi's old kennel - a bit of peace and quiet from the needy youngsters, seems fair.  I have given her plenty of chewy things so she has something to do in-between her duties.

The mum is on Vets Choice small breed puppy food which is also designed for lactating dogs.  She has massive boobs which look like they have plenty of milk in them, but just to be sure I am giving the pups some milkopup formula 3 times a day to supplement their intake.  I tried bottle feeding one but it was a right pain, they are a week ahead of the vets recommendation and can lap / lick from a shallow dish so thats the chosen delivery method now.  They usually get covered in milk and lick it off each other, I dont really care as long as it gets into their mouth.



I didn't realise how much work they were going to be.  I get up in the morning and go into the flat armed with cleaning products and a cup of tea, clean all their wee and poo, change the newspaper, feed the mum, put down fresh water, make solution & feed the puppies, clean up some more poo.  Shower, change and go to work.  Come home, clean poo, feed all, clean more poo.  Gym.  Come home, clean poo, feed pups again, clean more poo.  Go to bed.  Repeat. A pattern is emerging...

My business partners 8 & 7 year old girls are going to name them on Thursday so look out for the announcement of their hilariously awesome new names after that!  They will be ready for their new homes in about 3-4 weeks. Put the word out.  Pure breed township specials, available in black, light brown, dark brown, grey, white or a combination of all colours.  Very nice natured mum, absent father/s.  Contact African Tails...  http://www.facebook.com/pages/African-Tails/115677453449 


Later.

3 comments:

  1. Reading through your blog with a massive smile on my face. I wish Blogger would allow me to make the text huge and bold when I say THANK YOU FOR WHAT YOU ARE DOING!!

    Seriously, South Africa needs more people like you. Good luck with the mom and pups - I'll put the word out :)

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  2. Awesome to see other dog blogs!
    Wish I knew you were around sooner!
    :) :) :) :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. YAY! You back with more stories! Love reading them!

    ReplyDelete