Airedale Newborn Pups
I guess for Annie,feeding nine newborn pups was a bit much. On the second day, she would actually walk out or hesitate even walking into the whelping area. So, I decided to intervene on nature’s way, and feed the pups about every two hours, but not all at once. I’ve been keeping the pups in a separate blanket lined container and taking five out for the first shift and then the other four for the second shift.
Airedale Newborn Pups
I let them feed for about 20 minutes and then put them back in the container and they usually go to sleep within two or three minutes. Then about two hours later, I start all over again.
Quite often, the pups decide, that two hours between feedings is a little long, and so sometimes the break between feedings is only an hour.
This seems to be working great for Annie, as she no longer hesitates coming in to the area or walking out as soon as the first one or two pups tart to feed.
I guess the only downside is in the evening when I’m trying to catch some Z’s. At first, Judi and I were taking shifts, but as you can see from the photo below, this didn’t work well for Judi. So, I’ve taken over the evening feeding entirely, and except for being a little tired during the day, Annie & her pups are doing great with the schedule.
Once they get a little older I’ll try to stretch the interval between feeding in the evening to 2 1/2 or three hours if the puppies cooperate.
For more factual information about the Airedale Terrier breed, I would recommend visiting Wikipedia
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Airedale Newborn Pups