First Time Puppies: Supplies Weeks 1-2
So you made it through the birth! Congratulations. Now comes the hard part. Several days of staying up most hours of the night to make sure your dam knows how to properly feed, care for, and protect her very defenseless puppies. In addition to the supplies that you purchased for the birth (see this article), you will also need some additional items now:
Thrift Store Blankets & Sheets - You may have purchased some of these for the birth, but they may also have been thrown away instead of washing them (that is what we did). We found two used single-bed comforters that we used to line the whelping box after the birth, and we would swap them out once a day (once in the morning, once in the evening) and wash the other comforter while the other was in use. It was a lot of laundry, but worked well. During this time the biggest mess will be from when the dam licks the puppies to encourage them to pee and she can’t keep up with the flow. That, and nursing often creates a small wet mark. Neither are bad, but they do need to be washed often.
Charts for Tracking Progress - During these first two weeks you are carefully tracking two things: weight and neurological progress. See our post on charts to learn more and to download our example.
Dewclaw removal? - You should have scheduled this before birth, but if you didn’t, be sure to talk to your vet now to get it scheduled if you decide it is correct for your breed and situation.
Fingernail trimmer - You will need to trim the puppies nails about once a week (for us that was 96 toes each week). The puppies press into the dam’s teets when nursing, and will begin to scratch her if you don’t trim their nails. We used small, normal human trimmers. You can find dog-nail trimmers at the pet store if that is what you would prefer to use.
Feeding Schedule for Mama (Extra Food) - In addition to the Mother’s Pudding (see this article), you will need to give your dam additional food (likely 2-3 times as much as normal). Be sure to read about your breed and create a schedule. For English Goldens, see our article about Mother’s Pudding to see an example schedule that we used for our dam.
Observation schedule - You will need to watch the puppies almost 24/7 for the first 72 hours, and then most waking hours and regularly throughout the night. You are makings sure the mother feeds them, cleans them, stimulates them to expel, and doesn’t accidentally fall asleep on them and hurt them. Working with some sort of friend/partner to create an observation schedule can help you from becoming too loopy (and cranky) during this phase. If you have kids, sign them up! Especially at night…make them earn that puppy time!
Wipes - Not Clorox wipes, but baby wipes. You will need them to: 1) help stimulate your puppies to pee and poo if the dam hasn’t done it recently, and 2) to help clean them when a littermate poops on them. They have little to no control over this process and you will be cleaning up often.
Schedule a vet checkup for 6-8 weeks - Before your puppies go home you will need to schedule a vet checkup to give them a clean bill of health, vaccinate as appropriate, and micro-chip them. Get this scheduled now.
Introduce outsiders early (for the dam’s sake) - Your puppies are not very aware yet, and you really don’t need to hold them (snuggle them) very long each day. But visitors are helpful for the dam to adjust and be less protective. Use good judgement with the age of your visitors and their health, but help the dam by exposing her early to visitors who touch the puppies. Also, be aware that “maternal aggression” can be a real issue, so handle this differently than normal introductions (see this article for some helpful advice).
Stuff from before - Items you already have but will still be using are:
Scale (and container to hold them in on the scale)
Pudding/Supplement
Whelping Box
This might be the hardest phase, so don’t loose hope! Birth was hard, the first three days are harder, but you should start to see the light at the end of the tunnel on the difficulty scale. Your puppies will only become more and more independent, strong, and capable after the second to third weeks and going forward. And they will be very fun to play with and interact with!
