Scene from Week One--Happy Nursing Tails Video

In this video, you can see and hear (!) pups who are very happy nursing. Iska prefers to nurse while sitting up. Does not look comfortable to me, but both she and pups say it works!

Scenes from Week One

Week One--Nursing on my sister

Here you can see Pepper & Salt girl enjoying trying to nurse on her sister's back.

You can see her using her paws and leg to knead at her sister's back like she would be kneading Iska to stimulate milk flow.

Pups are very funny and will often try to nurse on whatever body part is most convenient on a sibling--ears, nose, ankle, foot.

Week One--Night Time Sky

Here is what pups would see (if their eyes were open to see, that is!).

Pups have a night time sky roof over their whelping box. A roof/cover helps make the box seem more like a den. Mothers appreciate feeling protected and safely enclosed with a roof. The cover also helps keep the warmth from pups and mom Iska in the box. The cover only goes 3/4 way across the box, though, so there is plenty of ventilation. The cover is made from a crib railing and fleece blanket.

Day 7--Exotic wildlife or Iska's pups?

Is it a baby bear cub or Iska's adorable baby boy??

Iska's son is so cute and burly. He reminds me of a baby black bear cub.

In the other shots, you can see three of the girls: a black girl, the clearly pepper & salt girl and the dark pepper & salt girl. As she ages, the dark girl will have more noticeable pepper & salt markings. Right now, if you compare her to her black sister, you can see that she has lighter around the eyes, on the ear and also on the front legs.

Day 6--Nursing & Sleeping

You can see in these shots how well everyone is doing, how content and happy both mom Iska and pups are.

You can see pups are getting bigger from all the vigorous nursing they are doing.

Once bellies are full, lots of sleeping is job number one for nearly one week old pups.

Day 5--Sweet face

Day 5--Tiny Toenails

Day 5

Day 5--Pups with Mom

As you can see from the photos, pups now have their tails docked.

Tail docking was yesterday and everyone came through fine.

Our vet said the pups looked great and were doing very well. All pups weighed between 15-16 ounces, which is nice and big for pups of this age.

Clearly, Iska had plenty of great nutrition to give babies in the womb and is doing a wonderful job of nursing her pups now.

Way to go, 1st time mom, Iska!

Day 5--sleeping belly

Beautiful Tails & Beautiful Head--Day 4

Sleeping pup studies

I love to photograph new pups while they sleep. I find their heads, expressions and all little tiny things about them (whiskers, ears, noses, toenails, details of coats) fascinating.

I hope you enjoy these shots from pups' day 3.