Topaz’s puppies have just eaten their first solid food. According to the general rule, such additional feeding can be started at three weeks of their age, if there is not enough milk to keep them completely full.

Topaz’s litter with nine puppies is undoubtedly wonderfully uniform, everyone is swelling with strength and developing quickly. Only one puppy stands out from the crowd, and with this she has established her reputation. The smallest, named Nova by her puppy raiser, was born later and we fought together to keep her alive. It really seems that the magic and the great care are working, because the little one reached one kilo this week, which is a big deal starting with such a handicap.

A three-person job

We couldn’t have known that there would be a hand-fed baby, who would give us an order of magnitude more work, because she can only eat if we help her breastfeed, otherwise she would starve. It’s good that there are more of us, because József takes care of them one day a week, he is Topáz’s owner, and on the weekends my “colleague” who raises puppies, Nadinka, takes over from me”

– said Gizella Ménesi, who has been looking after Topáz’s puppies at home for two months.

Can they turn the volume up even higher?

The smallest one is the epitome of calm, but the big ones have become extremely loud by the time they are three weeks old, as if they are shouting: “We are starving!”, it is hardly possible to have a conversation in this noise.

I have never seen such a loud litter, although I have already raised a few. We protect back tits with our hands for Nova, of course the big ones don’t like this. I can feel with my hand how much force they are pushing Topáz, literally “putting” her from her 8 cm high bed behind the bed.

There are many changes

First of all, we can calm down, because they do not have stomachaches, because they sleep in silence. They have already been fed four times, the last time yesterday, but their voices do not subside, they continue their “hunger strike”.

Topaz’s puppies ate solid food for the first time on Monday evening. We offer them three times a day, and they drink breast milk in addition. According to the general rule, such additional feeding can be started at three weeks of their age, if there is not enough milk to keep them completely full.

The puppies have started to stare and “challenge” each other in the litter box, but so far this has only developed into a kind of mouth karate wrestling. Gizella recently took down the side of their litter box, because they climb on everything and fall off. To prevent them from falling on their heads, their puppy raiser has fenced off a corner for them, where they can fit much better and are safer.

Last week on Friday they started taking them out for a few minutes, which is so new and shocking at first, they can only last a quarter of an hour without crying, then they are outside for half an hour, but in a short time they will discover how good it is to be outside. We take them out one by one, that way they are calmer and get all the attention.

When the puppy first senses the outside air, he starts yelling, he’s so stressed, then he takes a sip and calms down; by the second time, he senses how much of a party it is.

Topaz is still an excellent mother, takes care of the puppies, and cooperates well with her owners, she is kind and calm. She is sanguine about the hysteria of the little ones, who need to be cleaned and checked.

Next week we will continue the story of the puppies. Our previous article about them available here.