Puppies

Monday 19th May.

Where has the time gone. The puppies are now five weeks old and dominate my day, by the time the end of the day draws near I have had neither the energy or the inclination to write my blog so I do apologise.

Last week we had a glimpse of spring like weather and it was wonderful for the pups, they were able to play outside and It made my job much easier but sadly the weather has been atrocious recently and today is positively horrid. I am trying to establish the routine of going outside to wee on waking but the puppies run to the door, feel and sense the horrible cold weather and quickly turn around refusing to go out. They are Ridgebacks after all. I am told the weather is going to improve by the weekend which will be a blessing.

The pups are all very boisterous now and very demanding. They are eating huge amounts of food and consequently producing even more from the opposite end to their stomachs. The refuse sacks at the bottom of my drive, which were left for the binmen this morning resembled Ben Nevis.(a mountain in Scotland)

I have continued to worm the pups weekly and I have to say they are very good at taking their medicine which is more than I can say for my cats. Athena one of my cats has my arm in ribbons and spat almost all of her medicine around the floor when I attempted to do her earlier. She threw up in the kitchen and this is always the tell tale sign that worms are present. She is a prolific hunter and so is constantly infecting herself.

Lela is finally recovering from her wounds but It was not without drama. Motsi kept chewing her lampshade and licking her wound plus she would go running through the woods bumping into everything. I suppose I could have stopped her daily walks but then she would have become really unhappy and I could not have done that to her. My dogs live for two daily events, their walk and their dinner.

We have had visitors these last two weekends and I am happy to say the dogs have been impeccably behaved. Raiza smothers everyone in kisses and Brewster, stoic as always, mainly ignores everyone, they really could not be more different. The girls are great. Ruby exudes health and vitality, Kasidi looks a little worn out, Lela is finally recovering from her wound and little Motsi is challenging for top spot. It is quite interesting to watch, she would even like to take possesion of the pups if I allowed her to. Last week she was playing with pups , pretending to feed them and as Ruby approached she growled warning her to stay away. What was interesting was Ruby's reaction, she really seemed not to care. So we will have to wait and see what develops.

puppies

Sunday 4th May.

I love my puppies, all 21 of them. They consume my every day but I just adore them. It is an endless task of making sure they are clean, well fed , happy and have an endless supply of cuddles. What is so amazing is how easy It has been for the two litters to converge as one and even the mums are happy to nurse whoever comes to the milkbar. Kasidi is now the supermum as she just loves to attend to all 21 of the pups whereas Ruby has to be coerced into the utility room and has a face which when she is feeding can only be described as sour. I do separate the mums at night by dividing the utility room as I feel It is only fair.

People always ask me If It is easy to say no to some of the puppy inquiries that I receive and I always have the same answer which is no. I love my puppies so much that I will never let them go to a home that I am not entirely comfortable with and so It makes the job of saying no very easy.

Kodak is doing very well, I always make sure he is on a prime teat and watch over to make sure he is not pushed off by a bigger puppy. I also hand feed him raw minced beef as a top up.

I wormed all of the pups again on Friday night along with both mums. I do believe worming is the most important thing a breeder can do for the welfare of the pups. One must always assume they are riddled and work from there.

My friends bull who Ihave on loan was really sick a couple of weeks ago and It transpired he was just riddled with worms. I regularly worm all of my animals, cats, dogs, cows and pigs to support healthy living. I also frontlined my cats yesterday and will do the dogs when the pups are a little older. It costs a small fortune but It really is a necessity.

I bought a new lampshade for Lela as Motsi was licking at her wound and now the number one priority is to stop Motsi chewing this one.

We will add some new pics of the pups tonight on the website to show how they cuddle in together. One mass of delicious Rhodesian Ridgeback puppies.

Puppies

Friday 2nd May.

I introduced a combination of dry kibble and raw beef mince to Ruby's puppies on Wednesday and they went crazy for It. Its amazing how they seem so content on their mothers milk and then, wow, raw meat and there is no turning back for them. Kasidi's puppies were less enthused yesterday but they are dabbling and lapping milk from a bowl.

The giant leap came from the fact that I moved all of the puppies into the utility room yesterday and so we all had a first uninterrupted nights sleep in three weeks. Bliss. I divided the room into 2 halves so the mums had their own space but this morning I took the barrier down and remarkably the pups have merged and both Kasidi and Ruby have fed the wrong pups this morning with no concern whatsoever.

As an added precaution for correct identity I have painted all of Ruby's puppies back foot with pink nail varnish and they were not impressed with the acetone smell.

Kodak is a little fighter and has almost caught up with the other pups so I can finally relax and not worry about him. They are all so adorable, they are playing, can see and hear and are displaying little doggy behavioural ways such as scratching the way dogs do and hitting the spot where the leg bobs up and down.

Mark is back from England tomorrow so an extra hand will be very much appreciated.