4-13-13

Nine of the ten of Holly’s puppies are now officially sold, and they are now at the weaning age.  Since Holly had a litter of 10, (very large) we begin our weaning process a little sooner.  We began that process last Thursday.  We are happy to report that the nine puppies that are sold are doing wonderfully on the “4-Health” soft food.  (Our brand of choice for puppies) As a whole, they are all a little thinner than normal, but with a litter that large it actually becomes “normal”.   There is only so much mother’s milk to go around, and/or so much nursing the mother can handle. 

That brings me to Male #2.  Ironically, it is the one remaining unsold puppy.  It did not do well at all with the weaning.  It immediately vomited everything back up.  We tried again Friday and again today, but the results were no different.  I am not going to call this normal, but it does happen.  Most of the time, they simply need more time.  Beyond this, he seems healthy and full of life.  We will ensure he gets to nurse off Holly more often, and also continue trying until he can handle the food.  We will also have him checked out by our vet.

In the meantime, we are taking Male#2 off the market.  We cannot, in good faith, sell a puppy that we or our vet deem unhealthy for any reason.  Once it is deemed healthy, we will at that point put it back up for sale. 

We will start weaning Aleu’s puppies soon, but since there are only 4, we will wait about a week longer.  No need to rush it unless the puppies need it like in the case of Holly’s pups.