Steel / Toldi Puppies Pictures

Steel's Pregnacy pictures and Preparations
On this page you will find Steel's pictures and the building of the whelping box.
Just keep scrolling down :)

Steel at day 25 of pregnancy	Steel at day 38
Day 38 - a bit bored.
Building & trying out a whelping box
First, clear out furniture from dining room, then bring in all the pieces, put together..	..then ... when no pieces are left over, put final touches...
... the almost final product. Missing from the pictures above is the middle partition which is 2' x 4' board cut in 3 pieces, which slide into the wood channels in the middle, dividing the box into 2 - 4' x 4' compartments. Also on the front there is another 1' x 4' piece that will be a gate fastened by hinges and latches to the sides. This will allow for the front to be open or closed as needed. The middle partition is in 3 pieces, so the height can be adjusted as puppies grow. We have cut couple of circles and a square into the boards (half of each on two boards) to allow puppies to climb to the news papered side to go potty when they are bigger and the height of those openings is flexible and can be changed as puppies grow. This will be their first "obstacle course". We have also put caster wheels on the bottom of the box to allow us to move it easily on the carpet, because it is very heavy. We over the back section of the box. We used old floor lamp we had with adjustable arm and put heat lamp into it. Since the box in on caster wheels, we could slide the stand under the box easily. Lamp can be raised or lowered as needed. See the pictures below for the finish product. I bought a wicker basket to put in all my supplies of clean hand towels, paper towels (I can't see her whelping on the newspaper) I also found the pad used for child's bed, it is soft and quilted on one side, rubber on the other and it is washable. I also found some cotton infant wraps that are soft and big enough to use to dry off puppies.	We have also put the X-pen around the back and draped a sheet over it to make it more cozy for Steel and added her favorite pads and blankets to make it more attractive for her to get nesting. The flooring is tile and on the "newspaper" portion of the box we also tiled the sides and sealed the seams to allow for easy clean up. The 1' front can be taken off before whelping, as not to make Steel jump into the box for the last two weeks of her pregnancy - even now she is hesitant and careful to jump. We plan to add the front back as soon as the whelping is finished and put some blankets there for her, if she wants to take some rest. There is going to be only 7 3/4" high board in the middle to start with no cut outs.. She is getting her meals there and she often sleeps in it. Measurements of the box are 8' long, 4' wide and 2' high - separated by 2' middle section in 3 pieces, which show in the pictures bellow. On the whelping side we have put rubber backed mat 4' x 3 1/2" to make sure that the floor is not slippery for the puppies. See pictures bellow for the final product with the middle section and the heat lamp.
Finished whelp box with supply basket and heat lamp. The cut out boards can be lowered by taking out the bottom uncut board.	Different configurations of the cut out boards. Just one board on top of the uncut board.
Here is another configuration of the middle section boards. Cut outs are on the bottom to allow puppies to climb through when they are still small.	The whelping section of the box with full boards separating the sections. For whelping, we will just leave one section in for easy access.
We have used old floor lamp with adjustable arm to hand the heat lamp from. Because of the caster wheels, the lamp base slides under the whelp box. Lamp can be raised or lowered as needed.	The whelping section of the box with full boards separating the sections. For whelping, we will just leave one section in for easy access.
The first visitors
... First inspection - Steel's first look	... Steel looks at her box from all sides
... I did say she looked at it from all sides...:)	But Toldi had to try it out first!
...then Steel joined him with Corey and Tyler looking on	... Toldi says: "Big enough for you honey?"
Steel got out and everyone got in, even Silken is trying, but she is trying to take the high road :)	Look, we all fit in, so those puppies should too! Steel, Tyler, Toldi, Corey and Silken
Steel decides to give it a try ...	but for now, she is outahere...