Week 5 - 12/1/2019

The Thanksgiving holiday weekend flew by and with it the pups are already five weeks old! Every pup is a champ eater working for every last bit of food. The puppy gold standard of meals (Zazu's delicious milk) are coming less often as the pups really only get that for 'dessert' once in a while if mama is feeling generous. Zazu's kryptonite is of course wanting love from us and the puppies know this. No sooner does she come hang out with us in the yard and nuzzle one of our hands for a quick pet, the pups have swarmed in and cornered her for a quick snack! The pups have been having supervised time in the main yard and Zazu is using this as an opportunity for weaning. Nine little pups are no match for her impressive speed when she has space to get away. Then she can gently gnaw on puppy muzzles and tell them 'No! No milk for you!' one by one as they approach. When Zazu chooses to be a little too nice with weaning, Grandma Kyra steps in as she doesn't take any slack from little pups.

When eating, the pups generally use the classic 'rotating star' technique (they put their heads in and walk slowly around the bowl pushing each other along while slurping up the kibble). They must have been taking notes watching Spyro the cat groom himself because after each meal they make sure to give each other a tongue bath until absolutely no crumbs remain. Pups are eating a grain-free large breed puppy kibble and we are mixing in a small amount of the adult food so they are exposed to different proteins. Right now is wild boar- yum!

Playtime in the backyard has exposed them to the joy of eating leaves, chewing on shrubbery, soft/wet ground, and a host of other things for a puppy to enjoy. Since everything is still so new, they are excited to head back into their kennel for a rest after playing for awhile. Inside we've added some new toys to the mix including a crinkle toy, cardboard boxes and packing paper, rope toys and others. Pups are getting some individual time with us roaming around for a bit in the house to get them used to being more independent.

Zazu is separated from the pups at night these days so she can get some rest now that the pups' area has expanded. The first night she was back in our bedroom, she was not at all happy about being separated. So to help her feel better we took her out to see the pups, but she wanted practically nothing to do with the swarm. We noticed the next day she tended to carry around one of the puppy toys. She doesn't normally just carry around toys like this and it always was the same one - a little green plush toy. We decided she thought this was somehow her puppy and gave it to her to sleep with the next night. Problem solved! Now she had a 'baby' with her and she was good to sleep through the night.

This week we also had Thanksgiving at our house. The pups got to see some familiar faces and some new. We had 9 adults and have 9 puppies soooooo....of course we had to take a picture with everyone at the Thanksgiving table with a puppy! Thanks family for playing along!

The Throne of Glass litter (as always in order of appearance):