bedding

hello all

right i have newspaper with vetbed down for the pups and mum
i dont have a heat lamp on as its not needed but mum will not lay on the vetbed only the paper and she is still pannting a lot (i know that they do this for a few days) but if she dont lay on the vetbed she is hiding her teats from the pups. she is not hiding them but its just how the vetbed is laying after she has moved it. when pups are not feeding she is laying out side the box to cool down. so shall i only put vetbed over half the box? (as i know the pups cant get a grip on the newspaper)

Yes I did that with my May litters, mum kept digging up the vet bedding as she was so hot, burying the pups and really building a wall between herself and babies.....not on purpose but she didn't want to lie on the vet bedding. So I covered 1/2 the whelping box with newspaper, the other half with vet bedding.

thanks CC that is what i have done now
after i know they have all had a good feed i go and move them back on to the vetbed

A thing I used to do is to get a piece of hardboard (do I mean hardboard the thin stuff with a shiny side and a little squares side ...it needs to be cut to a tiny bit smaller than the whelping box , you put the rough side upwards then paper if you wish and the vet bed on top than place it in the box like a false bottom..the vet bed is secure as long as he bitch does not scratch it up..you then have a nice smooth vetbed surface for the puppies

anti slip vet bed might help Bobbie.

Poppy still dug that up I think they just get too hot!

oh ok have not used it yet.....thanks CC

Although most of my vet bedding is the non-slip, I was a little worried about using it to start, it is heavier than the normal vet bedding and if a pup got trapped between I really think it would be difficult for them to get out. The rubber backing sort of sticks to the pups short fur!

We were in a real heatwave when I had pups last yr, very uncomfortable for us all! I put a cotton sheet over a vetbed for her just outside the whelping box as she didn`t want to stay in with them too long after about a wk. By time they were 10dys approx. not at all so I used a load of ice packs, the ones for picnic boxes & placed them all under the vet bed for pups she didn`t mind being in then. I wrapped the packs in those yellow/blue absorbance cloths so not too cold if pups touched them

thanks all

i have tried Minis idea and it is working as she cant dig it up, but she is not trying as its not so warm as the blanket is pulled tite. i am also doing what Christine has said about placing a blanket just out side the box with a frozzen block on the side (coverd)

thanks all