Rave went into early labor late Saturday afternoon. I was up with her all Saturday night, as she was uncomfortable and confused. She was very, very needy and wanted to be touched constantly but also couldn't settle down at all. Then Sunday morning about 7am I started seeing contractions. They came more frequently and at 7:40am, a black tri boy entered the world. Rave was a bit worried at first, she had no idea what it was that came out of her and left me to open the sac, get him stimulated and take care of the cord. Once Rave layed down and started smelling him, her instincts kicked in and she began licking him and eating the placenta. He immediately started nursing and we all relaxed.
About 35 minutes later, contractions started again. Then out comes a TINY little blue girl. Rave helped with her part of the job, but I took her away quickly as she was so small and not as vigorous as the first pup. But not three minutes later, Rave has another pup!!! Out comes another black boy, and I had to get Rob to help with that one as I was still stimulating the little girl and suctioning mucous out of her throat. So while Rave's taking care of the boy, and I have the little girl, she has another pup! Less than five minutes later!!! Out pops another black boy! So three pups in less than 15 minutes. It was crazy for a while.
Then it got stressful because the little glue girl wouldn't nurse, while the three bigger pups were nursing like champs. She seemed weak and wouldn't latch on. I knew there were still two more pups to be delivered but I immediately reached out to other breeders for ideas on how to get the little girl going. I am so grateful that there have been so many breeders who have been willing to share their time and knowledge with me. It's made all the difference.
So I am still trying to get little girl to nurse and about 30 minutes after the trio came out, another blue girl was born. Rave took care of her and everything went smoothly. Then 40 minutes later, out came the last pup, a blue merle boy. Again, Rave did her job well and he went right to work nursing. So Rave has six pups in two hours, which I thought was pretty impressive. Maybe I kept her too fit during pregnancy!!!!
So in order of appearance, with their puppy names:
"Octane" Pup 1 Black tri boy born at 7:40am
"Gypsy" Pup 2 Tiny blue merle girl born at 8:15am
"Bolt" Pup 3 Black boy born around 8:20am
"Rev" Pup 4 Black boy born around 8:25am
"Envy" Pup 5 Blue merle girl born at 9:00am
"Kahoona" Pup 6 Blue merle boy born at 9:40am
Rave is being an awesome momma and I am so incredibly proud of her. She's super attentive to her pups and really doesn't want to leave them at all, even to go out to the bathroom. I had no idea how she would respond to motherhood, but she's exceeded my expectations.
We spent the rest of the day making sure the pups were content, Rave was clean and comfortable and really working on Gypsy. But that's a whole other blog post. :-)
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