What's best for newborns?

A heat lamp or heat mat?

This is for an indoor litter. The heat mat would take up to a quarter of the whelping box.

So, for anybody who has raised a litter, what would be your preference and why?

Don't think you would need either for an indoor litter, as you central heating should be enough. I know a friend of mine moved a litter out of the conservatory due to the under floor heating, as it made the pups to hot.

I do not use a lamp or mat for a litter with a dam feeding them. Too hot is a s bad as too cold.

For the winter I have a small oil filled radiater that plugs in.

This has a thermostat so the heat kicks in when the heating goes off in the night and gets chilly. This saves heating the whole house.
Well that was when I had the kind of heating that went on and off at certain times now it is regulated by temp so likely would not need that now.

Most important is to make sure no draughts. Lie on the floor by the whelping box and check it out.

Ive always used a heat lamp positioned over one side of the box until my last litter and then I bought a heat pad (from petnap) which was left on all the time. I could then move pups and mat into another container when changing the vet bed.

The heat pad was easier to use than having a cumbersome lamp hanging down from the ceiling. For a winter litter I would always have central heating on and another form of heat in or over the box.

Thanks for the advice

i converted to a heat pad some years ago and found mum was far more comfortable with it, the pups found the pad easily and its was great as my last 2 litters were summer pups when the heatings not on. i quess it depend what breed you have ,as mine are a hairy breed i'd recomend a petnap pad

If you are using Vetbed then an indoor litter shouldn't need any addition heat(depending on the breed some very small breeds need a slightly higher temperature than bigger breeds)

I used a small heat pad [was for humans, not dogs] which I covered with leatherette. Pups loved it - it was not hot, just warm, and mums loved it as they could leave pups for toileting or just a break without worrying.

ETA pups were in the living room, I had no central heating but did have a small gas fire - could not leave it on all the time because of the risk.

The heat pad was like a very small thermostatically controlled electric blanket and just fitted in the whelping box. I think I bought it from Boots?

i went for a heat mat with mine, as people i had spoken to found that heat lamps were a bit intense and the pups couldnt really escape them.

i have a small heat pad in one corner of the whelping box, which means daph can lie off it, but the pups can lie on it, they find it easily when daph isnt in the box with them.

Thank you. I actually have a brand new heat mat which I got last year, I bought a puppy pen on ebay and they guy threw in the heat mat (unused) too, so it's there if I need it. I'm glad I don't need a heat lamp - I was wondering how I would hang it etc. Pups (fingers crossed) with be in my back room and will be on vetbed, so hopefully will be warm enough.