Puppies are so active!

Hi everyone. Here's my weekly update on Rogue and her puppies...

The puppies are doing great! They are still in my kitchen for the time being, but the diarrhea has finally resolved and the puppies are growing in leaps and bounds. Their eyes are completely open, as are their ears, and I can feel their baby teeth starting to pop through. With these gains, the puppies have become very active and curious. I did have the entryway to the crate blocked off, but the puppies could see mom outside of the box and were launching themselves over the barrier so they could get to her and try to nurse while she was "on break". However, once puppies got out, they couldn't get back in, so the barrier is down and puppies have now decided they like life outside of the crate! They occasionally crawl back in, but for the most part, they want to be outside. This means Dave and I have to be very careful when entering the kitchen because you never know where a puppy has decided to take a nap!

I can't believe how big and active these puppies are. They are further along at going on 3 weeks than any other puppies we've had. They are already walking around on all fours, already wrestle and bite at each other, and have even started eating some gruel (ground up puppy chow soaked in water then made soupy with milk formula)! They seem about a week ahead of schedule to us. We don't usually start offering gruel until 4 weeks old, but they are such vigorous feeders that they are quickly draining mom and still left wanting more! Since they are so young, we just have to make sure we make the gruel very liquid so that they get enough hydration. It is so much fun to see the puppies eating - they get so excited over the food that they even climb right into the dish of food! They are still too little to use the feeder bowl with the raised center to keep them from doing this, so for the time being, food diving it is!

I've added tons of new photos to my slideshow, including feeding pics, so enjoy!

Mom is now doing great with letting us handle the puppies and remove them from her immediate vicinity. Therefore, beginning next weekend, visitors are welcome. We'll let you know where puppies will be, but we are hoping to move them back to Dave's parents' next weekend. Til the next post....