Smiling German Shepherds: The wait is over!

The puppies have arrived! Last night we were all able to get a few hours of sleep as Maddie waited until 2am (the second 2am after we turned the clocks back) to start giving birth. The first little girl was born just three minutes after two and nine hours later the last female arrived a few minutes after eleven. In those nine hours Maddie gave birth to seven girls and four boys, totally eleven puppies!

Maddie did a great job during her delivery. The puppies came rather quickly and Maddie's maternal instincts were quick to kick in. She is also eating and drinking well again. She had not been eating as much in the last few days but I think the puppies had started pushing on her stomach making eating a bit uncomfortable. Maddie has also not lost her love of playing fetch, as an incentive to leave her puppies and go outside to walk and use the bathroom, we took a ball outside today and tossed it a few feet and she is feeling well enough to run (although slowly) after it.

All the puppies appear healthy, their birth weights ranged from 17.75oz to 20oz. They are all nursing well. We have divided them into two feeding groups, this makes it easier for me to ensure they are all nursing well without having to ward off so many siblings. It also makes it easier for Maddie to move around without needing to worry about her laying on a stray puppy. When they are not eating the puppies are under the heat lamp, they sleep well for just about two hours before they need to be rotated back with Maddie.

As the puppies are born I use nail polish to mark them so I am able to track their weight gain. If I find a puppy has not gained much weight over a twelve hour period I will make sure they get extra time to nurse. It also makes it easier to distinguish the puppies in photos. (I usually use different colored polish for the boys and girls but was unable to find my blue and green polish today so for today they all have the same sparkly pink polish)

Here are the first photos of the puppies that I took this evening. Hopefully the baseball will give you a better sense of how big they actually are.