Little Miss Chunky Butt Opens Her Eyes

10 Day old French Bulldog puppy

Princess Chunky Butt is growing by leaps and bounds, not all of them merely in terms of her girth, either.

Her widdle eyes are open (first one yesterday evening, second one this morning), so no more flash photography for a while, which means any photos will be a bit dark and grainy. She’s also super quick at crawling around, and can find her way to Tula’s most readily available nipple in record speed. As a singleton, she’s pretty much used to getting her own way, and squawks up a storm if you pick her up or do anything to thwart her attempts to get to where she wants to go.

As we learned with Delilah and Solo (ok, mostly with Delilah) singletons are a special kind of dog. Affectionate and loving, for sure, but used to getting their own way, and sometimes less than cognizant of the fact that they are actually dogs, and not small people in fur coats. Because of this, I’ve been contemplating putting two of the largest of Nell’s puppies in with her.

Cutest French Bulldog Puppy Ever!

Penelope has tons of milk, but she’s a rather lackadaisical mother. She cleans the pups, but she’d rather sleep on the floor than in the whelping box, and if one of them starts crying, eh – that’s what the nanny (meaning me) is for. Tula, on the other hand, would eat through the door if she heard her puppy crying on the other side of it, and Heart is so clean you’d think she’d been put through a car wash. If we moved the two largest pups, the smaller ones would have a chance to nurse more readily, Penelope would have less work to do, and Heart would have some siblings to both keep her company, and give her a run for her money in the competition department.

I haven’t quite decided yet if I’ll do so, but it’s a possibility.

The rest of the photos are over here on Flickr, and here’s a little video with her Royal Cute-i-Tude showing off her crawling, wiggling, rolling over skills – and her open eyes! Music is by Feist, because Sean was in the background yapping to me about laundry, and no one needs to listen to that..

Penelope Pup Photos

I’m having a what was supposed to be a lazy weekend — the plan was that I’d catch up on sleep while Sean’s off work and able to puppy watch. Instead, I’ve been trying to put some semblence of order into my inbox, digging through the messages on my voicemail, stifling the urge to take my Blackberry out to the garage and beat it to death with a hammer,  and trying to negotiate the byzantine maze that is Canadian Kennel Club paperwork.

There’s a special corner of hell someplace for the CKC beaurocrat who rejected my foreign dog application because Barb’s name came before mine on the AKC registration certificate.

In the meantime, have some puppy photos. More of Heart tomorrow, as well as a video clip of how puppies unerringly form themselves into a pile.

Tiny Baby Cream French Bulldog

Puppy Pile Up

The rest are over on Flickr.

Birthday Girl and Puppy Pix

Penelope's Pups at One Day Old

Barb pointed out to me that I forgot to mention that Penelope’s pups share a birthday – with Penelope! They were born two years to the day from Penelope. What a nice birthday present!

Penelope has lots of milk now, and the pups are thriving. She’s not quite got the knack of the whole cleaning them off thing, however, so I’m spending a lot of time dabbing them off with wet wipes. This is especially noticeable on the creams, who seem to have a penchant for pooping on each other, and for managing to get themselves covered in Penelope’s blood. Nothing says adorable like poopy pups with blood spattered heads!

The creams are darkening up already, and on the largest girl you can already see a tan colored dorsal stripe up her back. As they age, they’ll gradually look less white, and more a pale golden color.

Puppy Pile

More photos of Penelope’s kids are here, on Flickr.

Don’t think I’ve forgotten about little Heart! She celebrated her one week birthday yesterday, and if it’s possible, she’s gotten even cuter. She has definately gotten fatter, that’s for sure, and it’s no wonder since Tula is giving enough milk to feed an entire herd of dairy cattle.

Suction Tongue!

Her nose freckles are getting more noticeable, which is good – we want her nose to fill in completely, until it’s totally black.

She’s not just a pretty puppy, either – she’s a calm, mellow, content little baby. She rarely cries, she’s not fussy and she’s happy to be picked up. She’s not slow, either – she’s vigorous and crawls enthusiastically. All together she’s been a joy to watch growing up, and it’s hard to resist kissing her on the forehead every time I see her.

Look at this face – who wouldn’t want to smooch it?

Kissable Face Frenchie Baby

More photos of Heart and Tula are here, and if I get time (and a nap) I’ll shoot some video tonight.

By the way, if you’ve phoned or emailed I am not ignoring you — I’m just a little swamped at the moment, between caring for two litters on two floors, and trying to get in some work when I get a chance. Bear with me — things will be better by middle of next week, and I’ll try to get caught up on replies and return phone calls by then.

Penelope Got Milk

Well, that sucked. Penelope had a little colostrum at the clinic, so I came home sure that nursing wouldn’t be an issue for her.

Wrong. What little liquid she had dried up, and around four am I had some screaming mad, super hungry puppies to contend with, and no mommy milk to offer them. That’s when I remembered I had a walking dairy bar sitting upstairs. I packed up the kids, and took them up to Tula, who after an initial reaction that clearly said “Where the hell did all of these come from?”, calmly proceeded to clean them, nurse them, and nudge them into a tidy little pile, with Heart smack in the middle of it.

While this might seem like a solution to the problem, it’s really not. Newborn puppies don’t need milk – they need colostrum. Colostrum is the liquid gold that new moms produce in the first 24 to 48 hours after delivery. It’s a thin, watery consistency with an almost pale yellow color, unlike the rich white milk mom will eventually produce. It’s vitally important that puppies receive it, for several reasons.

Colostrum info on Wikipedia —

Colostrum is high in carbohydrates, protein, and antibodies and low in fat (as human newborns may find fat difficult to digest). Newborns have very small digestive systems, and colostrum delivers its nutrients in a very concentrated low-volume form. It has a mild laxative effect, encouraging the passing of the baby’s first stool, which is called meconium. This clears excess bilirubin, a waste product of dead red blood cells which is produced in large quantities at birth due to blood volume reduction, from the infant’s body and helps prevent jaundice. Colostrum contains all five immunoglobulins found in all mammals, IgA, IgD, IgE, IgG and IgM. There are many beneficial proteins in the colostrum, including a variety of growth factors (IGfs).

One of the most important aspects of colostrum ingestion is that it passes on maternal antibodies to the puppies. These are what protect the puppies from diseases and infections until they receive their first shots. So, even though Tula would have been happy to continue feeding the pups, I knew I had to get Penelope’s milk flowing.

First thing in the morning, I was on the phone to our vet’s office, hoping they could provide me with some shots of oxytocin so I could kick start Penelope’s colostrum production. Oxytocin is a naturally occurring hormone that aids whelping by stimulating the uterus, and assists in the let down of milk. A subcutaneous injection of oxytocin can help to stimulate milk in bitches with sluggish production.

First shot, and nothing. I urged Penelope to drink, repeatedly urged the puppies to nurse, and crossed my fingers hard. Second shot, and this time the pups were much more interested in nursing. A check revealed that Penelope was finally producing colostrum, albeit not as much as I’d like, but a small amount goes a long way, so I was finally able to breathe again.

Here’s a short video of the pups enjoying their first real nurse on mom. Me, I’m off to have a nap, and explain to Tula that she can’t keep the extra puppies after all. Poor little Heart, no puppy pile to snuggle in…

Penelope Kids

Mz. P decided she didn’t want to wait, and presented us with five pups — 3 cream girls, a cream boy, and a black masked fawn boy who can scream down walls. All of them are huuuuge — the largest weighs 12.4 ounces. By comparison, Heart weighed 9.1 at birth.

Photos now, updates later, sleep hopefully soon…

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A few more photos are over here on Flickr.