Weaning, feeding and pooping

I am really tired! We finally tried holding CC down to nurse her puppy. It works and we thought maybe she would catch on to caring for the puppy on her own. The minute we let go of her she jumps up and walks away! I have always said that dog is a big dumb blonde. So I meet Shannon during the night when she is getting up to feed the squirrel. I get CC and hold her until the puppy finishes nursing. CC will lick and clean the puppy too, but she obviously does not like it. At first we thought it might be because she only had one puppy and if there were more she would have taken care of them. After all this work, we have pretty much decided to spay CC and retire her. I don’t think she will be any better with a larger litter. I skipped taking the puppy to CC at 8:00 a.m. because I am just too tired and in too much pain.


Raina has been a wonderful mother. My only concern is her weight. It’s like every ounce of nutrition she takes in goes to the pups. She has obviously lost weight so I feed her constantly. She gets puppy formula so she gets enough calcium and lots of calories. I am also giving her puppy food for the same reason. I think when she begins to wean the pups she will retain some of what she is losing to them. I check their mouths daily to see if the baby teeth have started to erupt. That’s when Raina should want to start weaning.


The three females in Raina’s litter are spoken for already. The couple that owns the Cocker Spaniel stud is getting 2 females to cover the stud fee and we are getting a breeding pair of Cavalier King Charles Spaniels in exchange. They want to stop breeding the spaniels and I think we will do well with them. Shannon and I saw the dogs last week and they are beautiful! We are planning to use one of their Yorkie studs the next time we breed Raina. They are really nice folks and give lots of advice.


This is a few days later..I’ve been too busy with weaning Raina’s pups and bottle-feeding the Cocker Spaniel puppy. I took my cue from Raina about weaning; she just gets up and walks away when she has had enough. The Cocker puppy finally started taking a bottle after a night of not being fed and a change to a Nuk bottle. My hands hurt so badly! I have severe osteoarthritis in my thumbs and it takes some work to get a wiggly puppy to settle down to nurse. At least she is thriving!


Sean offered to feed the puppy for me and got pooped on for his efforts! Usually it takes a little work to get her to go, but I guess she likes him and gave him a gift!