Super Sunday at Puppy Grand Central

Mary-Ann Sontag February 7, 2021

A danger with ten puppies is that the smaller ones get escorted out of the Milk Bar by the bigger, pushy patrons.

I observed yesterday that the gap between the biggest Bright Star and the smallest was an entire pound. Size differences are expected but that seemed excessive to me, and so I implemented an intervention both to ensure fair weight gain and increase the milk supply.

I divided the puppies into two groups. Claire nursed a group outside the whelping box until they were full and dropped off, and then she rested and refilled for 30 minutes, and then nursed the other group on the opposite side of the Milk Bar.

Repeat.

All day long.

I kept notes of group membership, and also which puppy group and Milk Bar side was next up. This is today’s list…

The data suggests this worked. The puppies gained between 5% - 9% in 24 hours with the exception of the smallest puppy — Lyra gained 15%!

Bright Stars Orion and Perseus with Lyra in the foreground

I do this kind of things with the Moonshadows as well but they are less mobile and easier to contain within the whelping box.

The Bright Stars are motoring around and hard to wrangle without separated spaces.

The process of lactation is all about supply and demand — by increasing demand, we increase supply. Infrequent or lazy nursing slows down supply as does supplementing puppies. Less demand = less supply.

The other part of increasing milk production is ensuring adequate nutrition. Claire and Daisy eat around the clock to support their ability to feed ten plus ten puppies. This is easy with Daisy, who eats anytime and anything.

Claire is harder as she continues to only eat when hand fed and she is picky — none of that is typical for her. She is perfectly healthy and so likely this is hormones and perhaps her injured knee is a factor — who knows?! Regardless, she has to eat to feed these puppies and so hand feeding from the buffet it is — every single hour.

What does Claire eat? During the day yesterday, for example, she had 4 - 5 cups of two kinds of puppy kibble, three tins of sardines, two fried eggs, four peanut butter pancakes, a bunch of meatballs, and so on. All hand fed — even the stinking (literally) sardines. Gross.

Claire won’t eat the same foods for Dear Husband as she will for me and so at night she has 5 - 6 ounces of Swiss cheese, unlimited slices of chicken breast, and animal crackers with peanut butter on them — and whatever else she will eat.

Yes, it is exhausting.

Daisy eats both puppy kibble and also homemade food — yesterday’s version was quinoa, ground beef, and spinach.

It is all worth it! The puppies are thriving, the mothers are content, and this is all short-term.

Sigh.

The Bright Stars will soon be moving out of the whelping box and into a bigger space — still right here in the dining room, of course.

I hope you have a Super Sunday. With so many perfectly perfect puppies, we sure will.

Evening Pics

Winter finally arrived here in western Montana. This is the view from our deck.

Claire and Nova 2-7.jpg — Claire and Nova

Puppy Grand Central Report (Updated)

Mary-Ann Sontag February 6, 2021

When I get up — usually by 5 a.m. — it is like a pack of magic pixies have visited. The kitchen is clean, the laundry is done, and my water bottle is filled and ready to go. Most important — puppies are well, and dogs are happy.

When Dear Husband gets up — usually about 7:30 pm — the house looks like a hurricane went through it. I guess the magic pixies only show up when it is dark??

Moonshadows nursing with Titan in foreground #gotitan

Regardless, it sure is wonderful and makes this ten plus ten thing (plus remote work) so much easier. #gratitude

As many know, Dear Husband is a retired law enforcement officer and his preferred shift was nights — he and his nighttime pixies go way back. The Moonshadows and Bright Stars are pretty well-behaved (so far) and so these night shifts are pretty tame compared to what he used to do.

That said, I suspect a bit of a conflict is brewing between the East Side (Moonshadows) and the West Side (Bright Stars).

My first clue was when Rosebud informed me that the true Heavyweight Champion was not a Bright Star but rather Andy from the Moonshadows. It is true that Andy is the Heavyweight Champion of the Moonshadows but her assertion seemed suspect.

Almost five pounds? Nice try, Rosebud. Apparently Rosebud has favorites.

The second clue that we might have some east vs. west issues was when the West Side puppies (Bright Stars) started protesting — whining and carrying on more than seems usual. No memo has arrived explaining their concerns but I suspect they are sick and tired of being treated like babies who cannot thermoregulate, and they want the hellish heat turned down. #AMEN

The East Side puppies held a meeting about this.

Like most meetings, it was a snoozer. But they agreed that we can turn the heat down A LITTLE BIT. #hallelujah

Some pics from the Bright Stars Wildlife Cam…

Okay — a longhorn doesn’t seem exactly like wildlife but consider that any Texas Longhorn who made it to Montana has clearly had a wild life.

Have a wild day — in a fun way, of course.

Evening Photos

Moonshadow Puppy Tower 2-6.jpg — Moonshadow Puppy Tower

The Expansion of Rosebud's Venture (Updated - twice)

Mary-Ann Sontag February 5, 2021

Rosebud checked in with her customers to see how they like their new collars…

She also delivered the rest of the Bright Star collars and now all ten have a fancy new collar from Rosebud’s Puppy Collars (and cat toys).

Rosebud is a stickler for details. She thought Sun’s collar was too close to Capella’s yellow and so she had her production team (aka Night Shift Puppy Nanny) make a new one for Sun in a more true lime green…

After assuring their complete satisfaction, Rosebud asked the Bright Stars to consider posting a Whelp review. They were happy to give Rosebud’s Puppy Collars (and cat toys) a ten bright star rating (out of five).

Armed with this evidence of satisfaction, she headed over to the Moonshadows. She decided on a divide and conquer marketing strategy, and started with Neil.

“Rosebud’s Puppy Collars (and cat toys) have a ten bright star rating on Whelp and your satisfaction is guaranteed,” she informed Neil.

“Just try it on — it is so comfortable,” she continued, hoping he did not wonder why she was not wearing one of these amazing ten bright star rated comfortable collars. “It is very simple.”

So distracted by the old collar (now cat toy), Rosebud forget to tell Neil how great his new collar looked but he is a smart boy and knows a good thing when he wears one…

Rosebud won the entire Moonshadow litter over with a well-worn sales technique — she told them that all the cool pups wear Rosebud’s Puppy Collars (and cat toys).

“Ahem,” she said, “Bright Stars…”

It worked.

And so the Bright Stars have solid colored collars and the Moonshadows have patterned collars…

Have a ten bright star rated day!

Evening Photos

So, the plan was that all the Bright Star photos would look like Lyra’s…

You likely know how plans go.

I finally gave up and decided it was enough to have one decent photo of each puppy — that was an all-day project by itself. I have booked Suzanne to help next week.

So here you go — the Bright Stars at two weeks (and a day).