3 weeks old

Tub of puppies wearing their new collars

3 weeks old, and happily living life in the puppy pen.  The pups gained around 1 lb this week, and everyone except Wren and Mynah are over 3 lbs.  The little girls weighed in at 2 lbs 15 oz and big boy Eagle weighed 3 lbs 10 oz.  Once again, the puppies calorie demands took a big jump over the weekend.  They are now consuming a 1/2 of canned food 3x daily, downing 2 bottles of goat milk twice a day, and Bridget is in peak lactation.  I plan to introduce soaked puppy kibble mush tonight.  The pups received another nail trim and their first brushing.  The other big change is that they received their first real collars.  They look like little dogs now!  Other than keeping them fed, the biggest challenge is keeping them in the pen.  They have set the record for how fast they can climb over the low step-over gate - basically immediately, not even 3 weeks old.  As I have said before, this litter is very vigorous.  They are strong pupsters, and when Bridget was on the other side of the gate, the motivation was high to get to her.  And it wasn't just the bigger pups.  Wren and Mynah both went over this morning.  Since Bridget will not jump over the higher "half gate", I strung a plastic tube suspended by a thick shoelace over the top of the gate, so that the pups won't be able to gain any traction (tube will spin).  We'll see if that contains this bunch.