How to take care of Newborn Puppies

How to take care of Newborn Puppies

If you have been following my other Blog posts, I have explained everything about getting your dog pregnant, delivery and so on. Now, the big day has come and the newborn puppies are here.

How to take care of Newborn Puppies

Keep the puppies in Mom in a safe place. You want the temperature in the room to be very comfortable, in other words, you would be comfortable in a tank top and shorts. We made a nice crate with plenty of room for Mom and newborn puppies. It has sides on it so puppies stay in and Mom can get out. Scroll through my Blogs, I believe I have a photo)
you can also use an empty round kids pool, it works great for newborn puppies (and delivery!)

How to take care of Newborn Puppies, VERY IMPORTANT

Watch the puppies very good the first day and night. Mom is very tired from being up all night and can easily sleep so hard she lays on and suffocates a puppy. I can not stress this enough.

Make sure to bring Mom in to the vet for a shot (if she delivered naturally) which gets rid of anything left in her that can turn into infection quickly.

I know you have not gotten enough sleep either, but the first night try to watch the puppies carefully, as I mentioned, as days go on the newborn puppies get stronger.

How to take care of Newborn Puppies, Be sure each is gaining weight

Weigh each newborn puppy twice a day. Monitor each puppies weight closely, this way if a puppy is in trouble you can pay special attention to him and make sure he is nursing, you can even give him alone time nursing with Mom.

If you have a big litter of puppies, make "Ba-ba groups" Ok, so that is what we call it. Make two separate feeding groups, make sure you find a way to know for certain which puppies go in each group. We make groups by puppies colors. By making groups you ensure the smallest puppy is not getting pushed away and every puppy is nursing equally.

This is a full time job, every three hours I do puppy groups, and then in between if they wander and nurse, that is fine. I typically get up every three hours the first week to two weeks when the puppies are still newborn. Although puppies Mom feeds them, if you have a big litter of puppies you will find this to be a huge all day and night job of your own. Newborn puppies and as they get older require a clean place to sleep and play and hands on attention as they get older. One of the reasons people come to us for our AKC English Bulldog puppies is how dedicated we are. They can see how well adjusted puppies are, how clean they and their environment are kept and how much we love them.

My next article will be what to do if a puppy is in trouble and not gaining weight. Feel free to read all my blogs here all about taking care of puppies, and even breeding your dog!