At 8:30pm on the 12th of February, 1999 Ruby started the first
stage of labor. This stage can and usually does last for many hours. Then at 11:30 the 2nd
stage begins, pushing, this can and usually does last up to 3 hours, so it's time to put
on a pot of coffee. After several hours of mild pushing to work the pups down to the birth
canal the real work begins..... |
 First a water sack appears and sometimes the mom wants to be on your lap for comfort and love so you let her. Then the puppy starts emerging. This little one is coming breech. |
 So you have to help mom by holding on to the pup & guiding it down & towards her belly to keep him from slipping back |
 After the new one is born, at 1:50am mom starts cleaning him up, while you help anyway that is needed. |
 A red stag baby boy... weighing in at 4.72 oz's |
 Now it's time to get that baby dry. |
 Mom and baby bond while mom waits on the next little one to come into the world. At approximately 2:25 the next water sack appears. And at 2:35 a little red stag girl... She is 4.83 oz's |
 With barely time to get the last baby cleaned up, at 2:50 The 3rd baby is born. A little black & rust boy ... at 4.55oz's. Now mom needs your help getting the babies clean and dry. |
 Mom is really tired now and with your help pups are getting their first milk, while mom rests. |
 You watch carefully, for the next 1/2 hour, for signs of the next pup while mom and babies take a nap. Finally the 4th baby arrives at 3:25... a red stag girl... at 3.70 oz's. Now you stay awake and watch mom and babies for the next hour or two to make sure that their aren't any more pups. Then finally when you are sure that you are correct about not feeling any more babies in mom, you are exhausted because you didn't get to take those naps between pups. |
 But you do another head count and make sure all the pups are doing well and are warm and able to nurse on their own.. Now it is between 4:30 and 5am in the morning and you can go get washed up and take a nap. And if you work a day job, you get up in a hour or 2 and recheck all the little ones to be sure they are still warm & have full round little tummy's and go off to work. Then rush home to check on the babies again. But just look at the rewards of your love, labor and dedication. Healthy
babies, and you will say.. |
If you didn't realize the time and devotion it takes to bring a litter into the world, and be a caring responsible breeder, we hope you have learned a little something about what it takes to be a caring, responsible breeder. If you don't have the time, or aren't willing to go nights with little or no sleep so you can watch her and give your female this type of devotion, we hope you will reconsider breeding her. It is not as easy as let 2 dogs breed, she will have the puppies on her own and things will all turn out wonderful, as most people seem to think. What if a pup is stuck in the birth canal too long, and you aren't there when she starts delivering? The pup will die and mostly like all others she may have will die, and sometimes if left long enough the mother will die too. Breeders who breed this way probably have a 40% death/loss rate in the puppies they have because they don't/won't spend the time to care for the female and help her. That is 4 out of every 10 puppies born! And to us this is simply "Unacceptable"! I have heard many horror stories of breeders who leave an expecting mother at home while they go off to work on the day she starts labor "thinking", "Oh she will be fine until I get home"...... Just to get home and find her in major distress and after a rush to the emergency hospital lose all the puppies and sometimes even the mother.... Or other stories: She goes into labor, it's late at night and the owner is tired and thinks "Oh she won't have them until the morning", just to wake up and find dead puppies or a mother in major trouble. And about puppies that have been born, with mom alone, or outside and no help. She doesn't get the sack off quick enough and the puppy drowns in it's own fluid. Or if she does deliver them on her own one may get away from mom because they are not in a confined whelping box area, the puppy can chill within 30 minutes and die from lack of being able to maintain it's body temp. |
