The puppies are born! The birth and the first three weeks
On Monday, September 21st, the day had finally arrived! Although Indy wasn't actually due until Wednesday, September 23rd, she went into labour on day 61 of her pregnancy.
That morning, we already noticed that something was happening. Indy didn't want to eat and had a few slight shivers running down her back. Later, she also started vomiting, but apart from that, the entire day was surprisingly quiet. No panting, no restlessness, and hardly any signs that she would be giving birth within just a few hours.
Around 9:00 p.m., I decided to go to bed with her and try to get some sleep. I thought: the more sleep we can get now, the better! But because she still seemed a little restless, I took her outside first. Indy then passed some clear fluid. At that point, I already had a feeling it wouldn’t be long before things really started.
We went back inside, and from that moment on, everything happened incredibly quickly. I immediately called my mother. As some of you may already know, Indy normally lives with my parents, but she is staying with me throughout the birth and the entire nursing period. Luckily, my mother came over straight away.
At 9:38 PM, the first puppy was born, and after that, the puppies arrived one after another!
By 11:44 PM, nine puppies had already been born. Indy was starting to get quite tired, which is hardly surprising after delivering nine puppies in such a short time. Her contractions became weaker, so we gave her some extra calcium. Fortunately, labour picked up again, and puppies number ten and eleven were born.
After the eleventh puppy, we actually thought the birth was over. Eleven puppies is already an incredible number!
But Indy had one more surprise for us. At 1:26 AM, another puppy was born. Number twelve!
An incredible twelve puppies, exactly six boys and six girls!
And all of this during her very first delivery. In just 3 hours and 48 minutes, Indy naturally gave birth to twelve beautiful puppies. Their birth weights ranged from 169 to 250 grams. The smallest was Aurora (red collar), weighing 169 grams, while the heaviest was Odin (blue collar), weighing 250 grams. What an achievement! We are incredibly proud of how she handled it all.
All the puppies were born strong and lively, and Indy immediately proved to be an incredibly caring mother.
Of course, we also knew that caring for twelve puppies would be a huge responsibility. That's why we stayed with Indy and her puppies around the clock during the first few weeks. We had to make sure that every puppy was drinking enough milk and continuing to gain weight. It was equally important to make sure Indy herself was getting enough food, water and rest.
The first three weeks
Three weeks have already passed. Time is flying by, and so much has changed in such a short period!
During the first few days, the puppies mainly spent their time drinking, sleeping and growing. With twelve puppies, we naturally had to keep a close eye on whether everyone was getting enough milk. Fortunately, Indy has managed to nurse all twelve puppies herself, without us having to supplement their feeds. Quite impressive with such a large litter!
During the second week, the first little eyes began to open, and we could see the puppies becoming stronger and more mobile.
Unfortunately, at the beginning of the third week, we also went through a slightly worrying period. One of the puppies became ill, and not long afterwards, all twelve puppies eventually developed diarrhoea.
This meant lots of extra care, regular weighing, carefully checking that everyone was drinking enough, and quite a few broken nights. Thankfully, after a few days, they all started to recover and began gaining weight well again.
The puppies are now three weeks old and are starting to look more and more like real little dogs! Their eyes are open, they're walking around, interacting more with each other and becoming more curious every day.
We've also set up the puppy playpen. This will soon give them more space to play, walk around and gradually discover the world around them.
We'll also be introducing their first solid food soon, to give Indy a little break. Because as well as she is caring for her puppies, feeding twelve growing little ones is quite a job!
A Fun Fact About Indy:
At the moment, Indy is around the peak of her milk production. This means she needs to eat an enormous amount of food to produce enough milk for all twelve puppies.
Indy normally weighs around 12 kilograms, but she's currently eating an incredible 2.5 kilograms of raw food every day! On top of that, she also gets things like goat's yoghurt, honey and an egg.
Just imagine how much energy it takes to care for twelve puppies!
And Indy is doing such a wonderful job as a mother! She's incredibly sweet, caring and patient with all twelve of her little ones. It's so lovely to see how well she looks after them, especially considering this is her very first litter.
All twelve puppies are doing really well too! They're growing nicely (almost all of them are now approaching the 1 kg mark), becoming more active and slowly starting to develop their own little personalities.
We're enjoying every moment and can't wait to see how they continue to develop over the coming weeks!
Meet Our Mythical Litter! ✨
For this litter, we've chosen the theme Mythical. All twelve puppies have been given names inspired by mythology.
And of course, we're very proud to introduce all twelve puppies to you below! We take new photos of them every week so you can see just how quickly they're growing and changing.(Click on a photo to enlarge it)
Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
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