milk time

For the first few days after birth, the bitch produces colostrum to feed the puppies a mix of nutrients and antibodies to set up their immune systems.  On or about day 3 after birth, the milk comes down - or at least you keep your fingers crossed that it does.  If it doesn't, then you have a hard fortnight or so of hand-feeding the puppies every 1-2 hours, 24 hours a day.

In Neka's and my very first litter one puppy couldn't suck properly and so I had to hand feed him.  With one puppy it is hard work.  Very hard work.  Especially at about 3 am on the 3rd, 4th and 5th days.  Et cetera.  I cannot imagine the workload trying to feed an entire litter.  Although for the skilled (or brave) there are easier ways than by bottle or syringe, like sticking a tube down the puppy's throat.  Needless to say, I didn't do that.

Luckily that isn't an issue for the Pippuri puppies.   They are all sucking well, growing fast and today the milk arrived.  How do I know that?  I can see it.  And the puppies really start to stick into the milk bar, sucking so hard you think they are going to swallow Tuuli whole.  They also suddenly grow round bellies, start to get physically stronger and - cutest of cuteness - start to wag their little tails as they nurse.

In the first video you can see them contentedly wagging away as they nurse until one greedy little one (looks like it might be Tuulen) sucks hard enough to flip himself over, causing mayhem at the milk bar.

With such aggressive sucking, it's no wonder they get a touch of indigestion from time to time.  In the second video Tito has hiccups.