Monday 29 March 2010

2 weeks old weights

As Ian said on yesterday's update - they sure are growing fast. Here are their weights at 2 weeks old together with birth weight and last week's update followed by the chart - ta-da!









I look at these numbers and they don't really mean much to me, except that the weights are not quite doubling each week and all puppies reached 1 kg or more by the age of 2 weeks. Simple-minded, maybe, but I like to see things in picture form (double-click for a bigger, clearer view):
















Just for fun, I dug out the weights of Neka's first litter (Taika's family) for comparison purposes. And it just proved that birth weight bears little resemblance to litter size or eventual adult size. Neka's first litter - Taika's family - was 7 puppies and the average weight for the litter was lowest of all even though all the puppies grew to a good size, including Taika & her sister Keksi, both of whom are actually bigger than Neka.

The second litter - Maija's family, the 'Monta' litter - was 9 puppies and so I really expected the average litter weight to be much lower than the first litter. But, no, it was higher. And the majority of those puppies grew up to be on the smaller side, including Maija who we affectionately call our 'miniature Lapphund'.

And this litter who I am calling the 'Tuisku' litter - higher again, although I was thinking that some if not all of these puppies would also be somewhat small, given their sire's compact form. Not that anyone expects Dino or 2Toes to ever be mistaken for a miniature Lapphund when they grow up.

Unfortunately I can't find the weight information past the birth weight for the first litter, but here is a chart showing the relative average weight per litter. Useful? Not particularly. Interesting? Well, I think so.














And now, because you have been so patient wading through all this stuff, here is your reward: a video showing Butterfly and 2Toes taking their time to settle down this morning. In this one little video you get puppies crawling, puppies walking around (or should I say staggering), some barking and other cute noises, puppy discovering the water bowl, and pay attention at about 40 seconds when poor little Butterfly gets startled. I can't figure out whether she barks & gives herself a fright or whether it's 2Tone next to her squawking in his sleep. Either way, it's funny stuff. Unfortunately you also get a bit of unsteady camera holding from yours truly as I try to sort out the light. Sorry 'bout that.

Next I must capture evidence of them barking & growling like they were this morning when I was cleaning the box - quite hilarious.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

So cute - they are at the guinea pig stage!!

Paula