Puppy Food, A New Home, and Razor Claws

We have been feeding the puppies a mixture of soaked and pureed dog food, fresh eggs, and milk. For the first few weeks (beginning at 3 1/2 weeks old) we fed them soaked and pureed dog food. Now it is just soaked, which is much easier! The puppies squeal in excitement when their food comes. They also do this when their mom, Lucy, comes in and she is soon covered in puppies.

Here are the puppies (above) in their new straw-filled outdoor home. Much bigger than their whelping box and a lot of fun to visit them in. With 12 puppies, you need an easy to clean environment.

Here are those razor claws (above). I am due to cut their claws, this is first on my puppy-to-do list! We have had a lot of wonderful people interested in the puppies and many new homes for them. There are still more puppies left, mostly females. The puppies will stay here at the farm for about one more month (4 weeks). Then they will be off on new adventures with great new owners. Above is a new puppy owner holding his little one.


Here's the puppies' new home. It is made of recycled wood and it even has windows, at my insistence. Luc made it over a weekend and we put off finishing our own bedroom addition to make it for the growing puppies. Isn't he talented? It is about 6 feet tall in the front and slopes in the back to 4 feet or so. It's nice and cozy in the inside, with shelves. The door, pictured on the left, has a big black flap with "NAPA" written on it. It is a mud flap from a 10 ton dump truck or bigger. It is the doggie door, and Lucy pushes in and out of it as she needs to. The heavy rubber keeps the heat in and the cold out. Although it is June, it is still in the low 50's F. The windows with the blue wood are from a play house that was mine when I was a small child. My now 95 year old grandfather made it 20+ years ago. It is nice to be using it for a new generation :) There is a front porch that we keep extra straw on and that Lucy can hang out away from her puppies and still under the eaves.
See that bowl on the front porch? Serve that mama Lucy up! She needs 3 meals a day to keep up with her chubster brood (my new word to describe the indescribably cute and chubby pups). They are at a super-cute stage with round bellies and soft sweet eyes. Their teeth have come in in less than 2 weeks and they seem to be growing at an incredible pace.

Hope to see you all at the farm soon! Spread the word. . .