1 week weights

First of all, the poll result: the heaviest by a mile - or perhaps only a half a kilometer or so - at the weigh-in on Sunday was Toes at a whopping 760 grams.  From now on, we are calling her Big Toes! I must say I was surprised she beat Brownie, who looks like a stonking big boy, but the real surprise was Hopea who was second-smallest at birth and, at 746 grams, was second-heaviest at 1 week. 

The graphs and tables I like to produce will follow, but first, for those of you less enamoured of coloured lines on a grid, here is a cute video taken this morning.  How big these puppies are looking now!  And don't miss Claw up on his feet staggering around.  He wasn't the first to start walking though, that was Brownie.



And so to the comparative weight info.  Does this stuff matter at this point?  Not really, no.  I keep a close eye on the puppies' weight just to be sure they are developing as they should and that no one gets left behind.  Apart from that, the numbers don't have much meaning.  But I just like to compare and watch trends.

First, the numbers (click the images for a bigger size that's easier to read):










Then the comparison puppy-to-puppy throughout the first week:

And, finally, the average weight of the litter compared to previous litters.  Those of you who are new to the blog should be aware that the Tuisku litter (shown in yellow) had one enormous puppy whose weight skewed the averages slightly upwards.  Said enormous puppy is a lovely normal-sized boy now.

1 week weights

Every morning for the puppies' first week I weighed them to make sure each one is developing as it should. Here is the result (click the image for a bigger size that's easier to read).











If one puppy is smaller than the rest, or seems to be growing more slowly than everyone else, then I always try to make sure that is the puppy who gets first dibs on the milk bar. I put them into the box with Keksi first to give them a headstart. The teats near the back legs are the most productive, and they are always the ones the puppies go for first. And they are the ones that the stronger puppies claim for themselves by shoving their smaller siblings aside. For this reason, I also (and this is the bit that feels really mean when I do it) go into the room when the puppies are nursing contentedly and pull the big, strong, dominant, quickly-growing puppies off the back teats and replace them with the smaller puppies to give them a chance. Sometimes I have to do this more than once for the stronger ones to get the message and go suckle elsewhere (don't I, Honey & Budgie?).

I don't expect everyone to grow at the same rate or to be the same size. And puppies develop in different ways. For example, some gain a lot one day then not so much the next. So as long as everyone is gaining by more or less 10% per day, I'm not concerned. It's easy to see from the graph who has been muscling their way around the box. Click on the chart for a bigger size that's easier to read.
















So, does this weight difference mean that the bigger puppies will always be bigger and the smaller puppies will always be smaller? Nope.

There was no mistaking who the big puppies were in the last litter. Usko was so much bigger than everyone else, particularly his small brother Kallio, that I thought it was practically guaranteed that he would be the biggest as an adult as well. Things don't always turn out quite as expected, as you can see from the day they met up at the age of 6 months. The girls in that litter were full of surprises too. Minna was bigger than the other 2 girls by a long way, and Kesa was the smallest of all. Yet, who was the big, grownup puppy at the age of 8 months? Uh huh.

So from now on I'm basing nothing at all on puppy size. And speaking of size... look how big they're all getting!





I just love it when they sleep all in a row.

L-R: Vee, Kicker, Junior, Kuusi, Marilyn, Honey, Budgie










Another video later showing just how active sleeping puppies can be. And a new poll.

2 weeks old - weights

Puppies weights at 2 weeks with birth weight in parentheses:

Big Arrow (366) 1153
Suck Monster (360) 1154
Chew (320) 1005
Right Paw (365) 1096

Spot (285) 953
Boots (297) 1009
Cross (347) 1154
Flash (300) 1040
LMP (?) 915

And, of course, the diagrams!