Going, going, gone

The time has come now to say a fond bye, bye to our Lickle Delbets. The first to go was Domino, now Maddi and Poser, now Tia. It was very emotional after having seen them develop and grow from the lickle hamsters to the lickle doggies that they are now. Dotty, now Deeba has also gone to her new home and today, Una our first born now called Millie is joining her new family. So, the end of a wonderful experience with lots of memories, photos and videos to look at when the long winter nights are upon us. All the babes have gone to agility homes and we will meet up with them at shows. We will be getting updates and photos from their new owners so that we can all see how they develop. I expect there will be just a touch of rivalry but all in fun.

At last a bit of sun

Today has been sunny all day and it was great to let the pups have a really long play in the paddock. They have learned many, many more things today, like, we really do want to get into the vegie plot, the manhole that is all rusty really tastes good, we can dig for Wales, etc, etc, etc. keeping up with them is a bit of a nightmare now. They just love doing what we dont want them to do. It has stretched our imagination to the limit trying to find ways to distract them. It is amazing what a bit of rope, old plantpots, raggers etc can be used to amuse them. We are both tired out so hope they are too. Not long now till they start to go, ah!

What a day

There have been many steps today. All their eyes are open and beginning to focus. Play is non stop whilst they are awake, biting each other, jumping onto one another and all the lovely things that pups do. They are even climbing out of the whelping box so it is a constant excuse to watch whilst they are awake. They have taken very well to a bit of mushed up meat with ground complete mixed in. They also really get stuck into natural yogurt. It's time for the weanafeeda tonight so watch this space to see what they make of that. Luca is still the wingeing male of the pack but he is still the biggest and strongest. He is going to take some handling me thinks. But he really is a lovely boy and we are looking forward to him developing. The girls markings are fading a bit and it looks as though Domino is the only one keeping mum's colouring. The others are quite light brown now but still very pretty. Click on each photo to find out which is which.

Todays photos

Weaning

They have all just had their first taste of solid food. None of the cheap stuff. Cesar puppy (was all my local store had) at 72p a tin!!!!!!! How do people afford to feed their dogs on this. A 10kg dog needs 6 tins a day, that's over £4.00 a day. Well the pups wont be on this for long. It is really just a taster, soft and mushy to start them off. And boy did it work. None of this from the end of your finger lark, no, put it straight on the plate. Needless to say Luca needed seconds before he would settle. I wish he'd open his eyes like the girls as he gets lost and screams the place down like a wolf howling. You know it's him alright, but Betsie also recognises his sound and tends to ignore him. She's got him well sussed out. Maybe later he'll open up but at the moment he is just being a lazy boy.

Big Day in the Life of The Lickle Delbets

A really big forward leap today. Firtly, as they are now two weeks old, it is time to give them their first worming syrup. I wasn't looking forward to doing it but the girls took it all with a bit of face washing afterwards. Luca however thought it was christmas and lapped it up like there was no tomorrow. he even licked his lips and whiskers afterwards. He now weighs in at 1250 gms, a bit more than the girls who are now round about a kilo. They have all had a good lick off my fingers of natural yoghurt which went down a treat. The big leap today has been that at last their eyes are beginning to open. Some with only the one eye and a blink with the other but Cassie has both open. Tomorrow should see even more opening. If so, there will be pictures on as soon as I can.
I am off training with Tigi now so Mike can puppy watch to his heart's content.