From Birth To You
Here at Kiwi Pride we always put our four legged friends first. The best of care is given to an expecting mum and her newborn babies when they arrive.
Firstly about 10 day's prior to the mum giving birth she is escorted into our special, warm, whelping annex.
This is a place where she can feel comfortable and private, but still be involved with the family going on's. Here she is monitored day and night, we make sure that everything she requires is taken care of to the finest detail (Yes she still gets her exercise and fresh air several times a day, but she learns to take it easy leading up to the big day).
In the last hour's of her pregnancy there is always a person by her side, closely monitoring her.
If things are looking near and it is leading up to bed time for the human's, I desert my husband and get the camp stretcher out and lay down quietly outside the expectant mothers whelping box, she knows I am there and feels safe. There is a high chance the whelping action is at night time, so by me being by her side I am on hand for when the action starts.
We have most things covered here in our whelping annex and you could say this is my favorite time, my training as a vet nurse comes in handy and I am very confident in most situations.
Our veterinarian is close at hand and only a short drive away should we need extra help.
From newborn to 4 weeks of age the puppies are handled constantly, this is when a puppy set's his bond with the human touch and it is a very important procedure (we do however limit the amount of contact from 1 to 10 day's while the eye's and ears are closed, it is important that mum has the bond with her puppies and not too many other smells get in the way).
All activities around the small puppies help to stimulate the babies growing senses and my children are always waiting in the wings for any chance they have of a sneaky cuddle. (Usually you can find one of them in a whelping box when I take mummy dog out for a toilet stop, you have to then try and prie them away, not an easy job!! ha ha)
The puppies at 4 weeks are nearly ready to start their change over from mum's milk bar to solid food, and for this reason they are moved to a purpose built in-door facility. Here they get to play with puppy toy's and start to transition from milk to solids over the next few weeks and mum is gradually weaned from them over this period and at about 6 weeks of age the puppies are ready to start there lives eating independently.
The puppies are taken outside to play in our puppy parks from 6 weeks of age. Here they play around their very own adventure play ground, with toys, tunnels and lots of space to explore. They are then able to see and hear farm animals and the goings on of a very busy little farm and then they are bought back into their indoor environment to keep nice and dry and cozy in the evening with their heat lamps, heat pads and bedding + TOYS!
Kiwi Pride over the years has had to fine tune its weaning process as we have found many environmental aspects of living on a farm could occasionally play with puppies early immune systems if the puppies were allowed to stay out in grassed paddocks and for this reason we bed our puppies at night on untreated shavings and outdoors we use un-treated bark in their puppy parks. This enables us to ensure that our puppies are of the best health possible when they leave us.
Those traveling by air are crate trained a few weeks out from departure to help alleviate travel stress and puppies are de-sexed at 8 weeks of age (these are puppies going to pet homes).
Every thing is done to socialize and stimulate your puppy to the best of our capabilities, so that when they come home with you, you know that we have done our best to make your new family member as happy and confident as he can be right from birth to you......
