lots or puppys

[cece]

hello my name is tom my dogs name is cece she is 3 years old
she had her frist litter on 1 29 08 she had 14 puppys wow 1 passed he was 2 days old and a another pass when she was 10 days old the 12 puppys are doing awsome and so is the mother

[brunie's mom]

WOW!! That's alot of puppies!!
Hope you have a long waiting list of people willing to buy these puppies and deposits were taken even before the breeding?

It's really hard to find good homes for Rottweilers...that's why so many end up in shelters and in rescue. People want those cute puppies....but have no idea how much training and work they are.

Gina

[OnyxGold1]

14 is a lot of puppies!! I remember my Jenna's first litter was 14 and one was born stillborn but the rest survived with a LOT of hard work from us. Our "little" puppy should have better been described as our "miniscule" puppy being born at a mere 120grams (about 1/4 of a lb). We had to do a ton of supplement feeding, helping mom clean, and checking weights 3-4 times/ day on the weaker puppies to ensure that they kept gaining weight. Checking weights once/day on the entire litter. The tiny pup ended up having to be tube fed for about a day and a half as he kept trying to nurse but then would fall asleep and not end up nursing and within hours was dehydrated.

In my experience, 14 is too much for one mother to feed by herself even with the best of maternal nutrition so be prepared now to supplement these babies. We tried several different "formulas" of puppy milk replacers but in the end we found that goat's milk was the easiest replacement on the babies systems.

I would advise weighing your babies repeatedly and tracking that each puppy is gaining weight. What I did with Jenna's first litter was I would put half the litter on her to nurse while I bottle fed the other half and then would swap and top up the babes that had just nurses and let the 2nd half nurse.....IT WAS A TON OF WORK every 2 hours!!

Fortunately we had a waiting list of 10 great homes so it was only a matter of finding two more (as I kept 2). Best of luck in the LONG weeks you have before you!!!

Heather Peters

[cece]

thank you for that advice id been weighing them i got 1 gril and boy at 4 pounds the rest are little me and my wife been rotateing them. we had to take a gril to the vet she did not have a temp they said she would not live will she did and she is ok we are going to keep her and call her angel. i have got homes for them and i told them if they are mean to the dogs i will take them away

[brunie's mom]

Originally Posted by cece

thank you for that advice id been weighing them i got 1 gril and boy at 4 pounds the rest are little me and my wife been rotateing them. we had to take a gril to the vet she did not have a temp they said she would not live will she did and she is ok we are going to keep her and call her angel. i have got homes for them and i told them if they are mean to the dogs i will take them away

Please make sure you sell them with a spay/neuter contract...and that if any owner cannot keep their puppy...that you will take back each and every puppy back at any time in their life. Also do NOT adopt them out till they are 8 weeks of age...they should not leave the litter till this age...because it's important for their socialization and future temperament. Even though they are not eating from their mother at that age and able to eat on their own...they should not leave before 8 weeks of age. This is when they are eating and pooping machines and "breeders" often want to dump them early.

Gina

[OnyxGold1]

Something that you might want to try also if your girl doesn't have enough milk as Jenna didn't for that many puppies is to start them on a really runny gruel earlier as opposed to later. I recall with Jenna's first litter than she was pretty much done with feeding them by 14 days and then we really had to step up with the feeding at that point.

What we tried with success, and have done with each litter since, was to make that white Cream of Wheat porridge and then water it down to nearly soup like consistency with a lot of goats milk and the puppies started lapping and drinking the porridge fairly early and then really started gaining weight. (Funny.....my guys TO THIS DAY....LOVE a bowl of porridge). We started them at about 4 weeks on really soaked dog kibble mixed with pureed meat which they continued with until they left at 8 weeks. My little runt puppy (if you want to call him that) left here at the same size as his littermates who were born larger, and is now a strapping 26" 105lb boy. Also in addition to weighing your puppies daily, also check mom on a daily basis, mastitis can occur literally within hours, and you should also take her to the vet and have her checked over to ensure that her weight is good and also ensure that her nutritional requirements are being met. You definitely CANNOT spare any expense with ensuring that nursing mom has the best of food. With Jenna we fed her each and every time her puppies nursed so she literally ate 10+ times/day when she had THAT many puppies to feed. Of course after she chose to wean them her nutrition was cut back to normal immediately.

You commented that you took a puppy to the vet as it had no temp......are you providing a heat source for your puppies in terms of an area in their whelping box that is quite warm?? What we use is a product called SnuggleSafe they are large pink disks which are microwaved for 3-4 minutes and then are HOT so we wrap them in receiving blankets before setting them into the whelping box.....most times my babies fall asleep on top of them. However you also have to realize that it is possible to over heat a puppy as they cannot regulate their own temperatures and thus we check each puppy at every feeding time to ensure that none are getting dehydrated by pinching the skin at the scruff of their neck.....if the skin stays in a peaked shape after pinching it....the puppy is dehydrated. I always check my puppys mouths as well.....I let them suck on my finger briefly and always check for a warm mouth. I've only ever had one puppy from my second litter that had a cold mouth once and she stopped nursing within a couple of hours and faded shortly after that.....despite everything I did to save her.

Make sure that you definitely require your puppy homes to spay/neuter their babies and also require early puppy kindergarden/socialization classes. Young rottweiler puppies learn valuable lessons from puppy kindergarden classes and it is definitely something I would recommend that you require from your puppy homes.

I'm not sure if this was a planned litter on your part however you have undoubtedly found out already that there is more involved in caring for puppies and a nursing bitch than you may have anticipated. IF you aren't breeding for the betterment or improvement of the breed then please spay your new puppy and her mother and enjoy them for the wonderful pets that they are.

Heather Peters

[TrinaJ]

Oh my that's one heck of a lot of puppies, sounds like you and your wife are going to have your hands full for the next 2 months!

[dipper]

Hi CECE,

Wow, that certainly is alot of puppies!!

Tell us about the breeding---the sire and the dam.
What lines are they out of??
What titles do they have??
What are their HD and ED scores---how about their heart and eye clearances??
What were you looking for in this breeding to better the breed??
Do you work the sire or dam?? Conformation venues?? Agility and so on??

Do you have a basic puppy contract??
Do you screen potential buyers??

I am always interested in talking with breeders!!

Thanks,

Rich