Thursday, March 11, 2010

It's Gotta Be Today (Bromley's litter)

Yesterday, March 10th, was Bromley's earliest possible due date (62 day gestation) and though she is HUGE she made it through the night without any signs of giving birth. She was reluctant to eat her entire meals yesterday, with her stomach crowded out by all those pups. Today is likely to be the day: she did not want to eat at all, initially, and then only after her sibling rivals were sniffing around her dish did she grudgingly finish her small serving of kibble.

As dogs approach the birth phase they will get into a nesting mode and will try and find places to dig a den. This morning when we took her outside to do her business Bromley found a suitable den site and began digging under two large boulders, clearing out leaves and dirt. Once, one of our other dogs that was expecting, Sedona, returned repeatedly to a place under a bush next to our house over the course of a week. Before she was done, Sedona had excavated a hole two feet deep! Fortunately, we got Bromley to stop after a minute or two of digging in the dirt. Now back inside, she's taken to digging through a pile of blankets. At least it keeps her mind focused!

Our experience with birthing puppies over seven years has been that most litters are born at night. We have had two that occurred during daylight hours. My guess is she'll start giving birth sometime later this afternoon.

No comments: