On Tuesday March 8, I started feeding the puppies a mush made of ground kibble, water and goat’s milk. Helen Szostak of Grousemoor Retrievers, who has been such an incredible help to me in this breeding journey, saw them at lunch time that day. More importantly, she heard them complaining loudly and saw Sonic’s reluctance to nurse them. They have taken to eating the mush with great enthusiasm and they have started gaining weight at a much more rapid rate. Bubba is over 4 lbs as of this morning, and Lil Pea is finally making some bigger gains. He was really chowing down this morning. The first couple feedings, he just waded right into the flying saucer food bowl. Here’s their weight chart as of this morning.

The other exciting development is their use of the potty boxes. I have 2 plastic garden trays with wood pellets (horse bedding) in them. I think by now, all of them have pottied numerous times in the potty boxes. I started them earlier than recommended because they started peeing everywhere on their own late last week. If I see one starting to squat outside of the box, I scoop ’em up and put ’em in one of the boxes. But I have also seen most, if not all, of them toddle over to a box to potty. Clever puppies!They are starting to do little bits of interactions with each other, but usually by the time I get my phone out to catch it on video, they’ve stopped. Suffice it to say, it is very cute!

They are also all getting out over the edge of the whelping box, so I am planning on removing the whelping box later today for a somewhat roomier set up. With two potty boxes in place, Sonic doesn’t really have room to get in to the whelping box to nurse them comfortably, so it is time for more space. The puppies will be spending time in an X-pen in my kitchen while the new construction happens. Wish me luck!