the cutest thing you have ever seen

Sometimes a puppy needs a little help.  Sometimes when a puppy is born it struggles to nurse for some reason.  I had one in my very first litter and he needed to be hand-fed every 2 hours for the first 2 weeks.  To say we were exhausted would be quite an understatement!  However, it was worth every sleepless night because he grew into a fabulous dog of great character and health who is still making his family happy now, 2 months before his 10th birthday.

I have never before had a puppy who started out strongly enough but then didn't thrive like the rest.  Normally, you think that if a puppy survives its first week, then he's going to be ok and grow on.  By the time they are 2 weeks old, their eyes are opening and I'm getting ready to start introducing solid food to them.

However, little Dizzy wasn't doing so well. When he was born he was only 237 grams, and believe me that is tiny for a Lappy puppy.   However, he was strong, vigorous and noisy, so I had high hopes for him.  Then he carried on gaining about 10% of his body weight each day, as expected and like his brothers and sisters.  That did mean he was still quite a bit smaller than the rest, of course, but as long as he was growing at an acceptable rate in relation to his own size I wasn't too worried.

Then in his second week his growth slowed down to where he wasn't gaining even 5% of his body weight each day.  As the 10-days-old milestone came and went, most of his brothers and sisters were opening their eyes but he didn't.  Time for intervention.  He was still happily nursing from Kaija, but I started to hand feed him some supplementary meals of Lactol puppy milk, and that did the trick.  Eventually.  At first he was difficult to feed using any of the methods I have tried in the past, but after 3 or 4 attempts he finally got it and then he was well away.  As it turned out, he just seems to be a bit rubbish at sucking!

And now you, you lucky readers, are going to get to see the cutest thing you have ever seen:  a 2-week-old Finnish Lapphund puppy nursing from a sponge.  Enjoy!

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.