This Stage Development of Puppies

Tigre' is 6 1/2 weeks along, see below for puppy development stages through week seven
Today she is 39 days pregnant


WEEK SIX (Days 36-42)

DEVELOPMENT OF THE PUPPIES
*  Development of skin pigment  (please note, pigment as the nose color, not the actual coat color)
* Fetuses should weigh around 6 grams and be 45 mm long
* Fetal heartbeats can be heard with a stethoscope (wish I had a stethoscope!)

CHANGES IN THE BITCH
* Nipples darken and enlarge
* Abdomen continues to enlarge

CARE OF BITH
(my stuff to care for her)
* Add cottage cheese or hard boiled egg to food daily  (note, I feed her a special meal twice a day, soon to be three times a day, OC Raw Dog food and for variety "All Natural, My Perfect Pet" it's cooked instead of raw kept in the freezer, I actually really like this food.  The OC Raw gives her kinda loose stools, however, I mix it with her kibble (Orijin) and she has access to kibble throughout the day coming in and out of the house, whenever she wants to nibble)
* Increase the amount of food in the extra meal
* Bitch should start sleeping in whelping box  (she's just now ready to start doing this, starts tonight)

TO DO LIST
* Assemble whelping box
* By this time you should be fairly sure that she's pregnant (yes, ultrasound last week said 10 puppies)



WEEK SEVEN (Days 43-49)

DEVELOPMENT OF PUPPIES
* Growth and development continues

CHANGES IN THE BITCH
* Abdomen hair will start shedding
* she will start to look pregnant at this point (this point!  she's looked pregnant for 2-3 weeks)

CARE OF THE BITCH
* Slightly increase both meals

TO DO LIST
* Stop any roughhousing or jumping
(I noticed last night she wanted to ball thrown once and was done and then took a nap until we went to bed, she ate once and pottied once, but slept the rest of the evening)
* Radiographs (X-rays) possible to determine number and size of puppies
(with breeding our females to smaller males we aren't so concerned about too large of puppies for the dam, we also do an ultrasound to confirm pregnancy about 28-35 days along, sometimes we do an additional X-ray the week she's due, I am considering do this with Tigre')


week's 8 and 9 are when the bitch is on whelping alert, this blog will be updated in about 1.5 weeks for the next stage