How long can you leave newborn puppies unattended?
Don’t leave newborn puppies unattended to for long. You should ensure that you check up on them hourly to be sure they are safe and well-fed. Most of the other reasons have been discussed in the below sections. To get your puppies big and healthy, frequent check-up is necessary.
Do I have to watch newborn puppies 24/7?
Newborn puppies need constant supervision, and that can cover some hours in a week. It may not necessarily be for the whole 24 hours in a day. This supervision becomes even more necessary when it’s the mother’s first time of delivering. You’d need to check to ensure they are warm and feeding on their mother’s milk.
For example, due to the large number of pups that the mother delivers, there is a high possibility that either one or two of the pups aren’t able to come in contact with the mother’s teats. It could also be that the mother prevents them from feeding from her. Either of these scenarios could lead to the unfed pup dying.
One other thing that you need to note is that new born puppies have undeveloped senses. This means that they find it hard to see, hear, or walk. In case they are in the face of danger, they’d remain unaware. That’s why don’t leave newborn puppies unattended to for long. You need to ensure that you check them regularly to protect them from incidents or objects that could threaten their lives.
Here, we will be discussing specific guidelines and periods when you should check out your puppies.
Feeding time
It is very important to check out the weight of the puppies. Relying on their physical appearance may not be the right way to detect an unfed puppy. Ensuring that you are available during the time they feed will help you know which puppy feeds and the one that doesn’t.
Crying puppies
When you continue to hear a puppy whining for a long time, it means they do not have access to their mother’s teat. As a result, they become hungry. What you should do is supervise the unfed pup to one of the mother’s teats. The teat that is most proximal to the mother’s hind legs has the highest milk supply. So, ensure that you place the unfed pup next to that particular one.
Weaning time
When the mother of a puppy isn’t available to feed the pup, you want to ensure that you provide food constantly to the puppy. You could also wean when you want your puppies to have something other than their mother’s milk.
This serves as a form of introducing them to other foods. Puppies need help to eat the new food and this is where you come in. You’d be responsible for feeding them with the new mesh by introducing it into their mouth with your finger.
Sick puppies
Checking out the litter frequently will help you know which is sick. That way, you can immediately contact a vet doctor. In a scenario where your puppy is infected with bacteria, they could suffer from conditions that could threaten their lives. The puppy may also end up looking very thin. You should also check the mother for signs of sickness—swelling or discoloration of the mammary glands. Once she’s sick, she’d be unable to feed her puppies well.
Temperature control
You want to always ensure that your puppies are kept warm at all times. The reason is because they lack the facilities needed for controlling their temperature. That is why you need a whelping box. The temperature in the box can easily be regulated.
At least, for the first week, you must ensure that a temperature of about 30-degrees is maintained within the box. In consequent times, you could reduce the temperature. The tools you need to maintain the temperature of your puppies include;
- Lamps
- Bottles containing hot water
- Towels
- Thermometer
You must ensure that you do not allow the hot bottles to come in contact with the bodies of the pups. Their bodies could easily suffer heat burns. That is why you have to wrap them up with towels. To also ensure that you’ve got the right temperature, check out the temperature of their rectum. A figure above 36-degrees is just perfect. The moment you begin to get figures in the range of 38-40 degrees, you can quit with the close monitoring.
Puppies’ eyes
One of the things you always want to check for is the eye of your puppies. Usually, their eyes begin to open when they are about 12 days old. The retina develops later on—when they are 21 days old, and by the time they are a month old, they begin to catch the proper outline of images and objects. Ensure that the eyes of your puppies are changing as described. In case an eye is swollen, ensure that you immediately contact your vet doctor. Once a pup’s eye is infected, it could lead to blindness.
Do I need to stay up all night with newborn puppies?
You may not need to stay up all night when you have newborn puppies. All you need to do is pick out specific times in the night that you can check up on the puppies. For example, if the puppies sleep with their mother, there could be incidences where the mother lies on one of them, mistakenly. That often leads to suffocation of the puppies.
Getting a whelping box often solves this issue. If you already have a whelping box, you may need to get a bigger one that can adequately accommodate the pups and their mother without risk of suffocation.
Below are some normal things that puppies do;
- You might hear the young puppies making shrieks regularly. This is absolutely normal. When the pups want to feed, they have to search for one of their mother’s teats. While searching, they release sounds that are most similar to whines. However, once they find the teat and feed, the sound stops.
- Turning in their sleep: By turning, the puppies get to stretch their muscles. This act helps in the development of their muscles. Puppies also twitch frequently while sleeping. That helps with the development of their nervous system.