Each of the puppies has doubled birth weight.  They are getting stronger each day and are starting to practice using their legs more than just scooting around.  Life still consists of eating and sleeping and eating and sleeping.

One week old!  We have begun the neuro-stimulation exercises.  If you want to see a video of my earlier litter, check out youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPp3JWEpZh4

Here are some photos of our puppies at 1 week.

Green boy

Grey girl

Orange girl

Purple girl

We need a caption for this photo.  Mama's legs are like a chaise lounge for grey girl.  Check those full tummies!  Green boy is still filling up.

You would think with almost 20 years in showing/breeding dogs that I could tell the difference between a puppy male and a puppy female.  Well, not so.  Embarrassed to admit that on closer scrutiny,  brighter lighting, my biggest puppy is in fact a boy.  That means green girl is really green boy.

Here are the girls at almost 4 days old.   You can tell from the noses and toes that these two will both be brown patches on roan, like mom.

Orange and grey girls

Purple and green girls:  The light puppy will likely look mostly white with slight tinge of orange around the ears.  The other puppy will look like mom.

Puppies are here!  Ginna presented us with 4 girl puppies starting at 3:45 am on Nov. 21; my son's birthday.

3 pups are going to be the color of mom (brown/roan) and the other will be like dad, white/orange.  Puppies weighed between almost 11 oz. to 15 oz., big puppies!  We've had puppies in larger litters that were 4.5 oz to 9 oz., so I was surprised to have a 15 oz. puppy.  We had to help with that one.  When I saw the front paws present themselves, I had a premonition that the rest of the puppy would be big, as well.

You can see better photos of sire and dam on my website on Ginevra's page and my Photos page with Appy in a tuxedo.  http://www.lagottoaz.com

At 3:45 am, Ginevra started whelping her litter of 4 girls, weighing in at 10.6 oz. to a whopping 15 oz.  That one was pretty hard work and I had to help.  The feet came out first and I could tell as soon as I saw them that this was a large puppy.  We have 3 that will look like mom and one who will look like Dad.  Photos tomorrow when I am not so tired.

Puppy's birthdate is November 21, same day as my son's birthday.

We are checking Ginevra via fetal monitoring twice a day and also checking puppy heartbeats with the doppler.  She had her first recorded contraction last night.  She is still very active and eating well, so it might be a couple more days.  Next monitoring session will tell us more.

While we are waiting I researched an item on fiber in canine diet and found this item worth sharing.  Our dogs are mostly raw fed so it was interesting to me to make sure they get the correct amount in their diet.  Even if your dogs are fed commercial diets, it is good to be aware of the excess or lack of fiber in their diets.

dietary fiber for cats and dogs

I have been checking heartbeats with the doppler and have had mixed results in trying to get a count on how many puppies to expect.  We took Ginna in to the vet to get a count, see rads below, and then took her in again the next day for another try at a better image to count.  The vet sees 3 puppies.  I have been hearing possibly 4 or more but since I am an amateur doppler tech, I am not certain that I have a correct count.  I sent the rads to the WhelpWise counselor and she thinks we have 4 pups but perhaps one is hiding.  Ginevra's digestive track is pretty congested so it is harder to count on the Xrays.

So how many can you see?

We just got our WhelpWise equipment.  Now we can track fetal heartbeats with the doppler and read uterine contractions with the sensor that records all.  We then send the recording over the phone lines where they are evaluated by WW pros.  I wouldn't have a litter without this great equipment.

Here is their website:
http://www.whelpwise.com/

So far Ginevra hasn't slowed down much.  By next week she should be getting in the mindset of motherhood.

For such a little girl, Ginna has a BIG tummy!  She is due to whelp in less than 3 weeks and she is already running less and being more careful when she jumps.  She still is digging (and tore up part of the drip system today) and singing at ear-splitting levels, enough to make her shake her own head.