Well first of all a report on Mom and Babies, the babies and mom's are doing just fine. Both Heidi and Bristol are excellent attentive moms. Imagine 10 days already since Bristol gave birth to her six pups and 7 days since Heidi delivered her five pups.
It is always a challenge within the first few weeks to determine the colour and of course the gender of the pups. This is due to the fact that as a general rule of thumb for almost all Breeders, it is considered unsafe to disturb the mom's much in the first two weeks for fear of them killing their young. The first two weeks are critical times for mom and babies to bond. Hedgie Whisperers respects this two week timeline and just peeks under the hood (Igloo) to do a quick count and viewing of progression of the pups.
Now for our original colour assessment. Heidi's five pups are all starting to show very Dark Standard "snowflake"(DSS) colours, though this can still change. There is one of Heidi's litter looking more "Grey dark standard" than DSS.
On the total opposite of the colour scale, Bristol's six pups appear to developing both Cinnamon, possible one White and also Pinto! Their colours are more challenging to assess as Bristol is an extremely protective little mom! Its closing in on the two week mark for Bristol's babies, so I will be able to start to handle them and start to determine gender and colour. It is so exciting as the 2 week mark finally draws near, to begin to take 1 or 2 minutes a day to handle the babies for hand taming. They have already doubled their birth size!!
Stay tuned for more Quilling news this week as we start to hand tame the pups and get updated photos for you!!
A special welcome to our newest followers AJ & Ken
The Hedgie Whisperers Team
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