WEEK 4 OF THE LAB NURSERY DIARIES We hope that sharing some of our experiences with this litter will be fun for the new owners to read as well as informative to those thinking of purchasing a Lab puppy in the future or possibly breeding their Labrador Retriever. WEEK #4 The Puppies Personalities Are Developing. 2/25/05 Happy Three Week Birthday to the puppies and Happy, Happy 7th Birthday to Ali! She is a fantastic mother to the pups. Ali with a toy in her mouth as usual. All puppies weigh between 3.25 and 3.75 pounds today -- more than triple their birth weights! What happens during Week 4 with the litter: Teething starts in earnest. Puppies become more and more tuned in to activity "outside of the box". Puppies are barking, growling and howling. Puppies will play with each other more. Puppies continue to increase in weight rapidly. Puppies and mom will be dewormed. By end of week 4, puppies will probably be started on some "gruel". 2/27/05 Jail break! We had a couple of the puppies figure out how to "think outside of the box". The pig rail (white PVC pipe in the whelping box) has now been removed. 3/2/05 The puppies are very interested in people and dogs outside the whelping box. Here are some of them looking for their mom. The yellow girl meeting Ruby.    ; Black boy with yellow collar and yellow boy contemplating escape. 3/3/05 The puppies all weigh approximately 4 pounds today. They received their first gruel and some dewormer (we use Nemex 2). To make gruel we combine evaporated milk, water, yogurt and an egg yolk in the blender. Then we add some baby rice cereal to thicken it at the time we serve it to the puppies. They lapped up the gruel eagerly. At the same time the puppies are dewormed it is important to deworm their mom as well. More "Labrador Nursery Diary" Pages No text or images may be used without permission.