Dear List- I just wanted to thank all of the people who responded to my inquiry about the Scotts Whelping Nest. Your suggestions proved invaluable and were put to immediate use! My husband and I spent several hours retrofitting a plastic Whelper Helper to accommodate the nest. I was a little worried that it would not be big enough, but so far it seems to be working out quite nicely. We were blessed with the arrival of 4 pups yesterday morning (2 B&T boys, a B& T girl and a blenheim girl). Initially my mom was not happy with her new whelping box, and regarded it as an alien being. I was tempted to add a fleece pad (Myra - I always have on hand the type of fleece pads that you had suggested, and I do love them especially when the pups get a bit older, but I'm usually in a constant battle with my moms to keep them from being wadded into a corner, or pushed over the top of the pups), but when I put one in the box it was readily apparent that the pups could easily crawl out of the nest, defeating its purpose. So I removed the pad and kept my fingers crossed. Eventually her maternal instincts prevailed and mom curled up with her pups in the nest. I am amazed that she is not panting, which is what always happened with the other setup I had used, yet all of the pups are comfortably content - I have never had such a quiet first night with a litter of newborns. I'm definitely sold on this nest. It is such a comforting feeling knowing that a pup cannot crawl off into a corner of the box and become chilled. And as an added bonus, it makes cleanup a piece of cake, since there are no soggy, dirty newspapers. Also, the grainy texture of the plastic nest does seem to give the pups something to push off of, as they do not seem to have any trouble moving around on it. I do like Phyllis' suggestion of tucking a fleece pad around the nest in about a week, but for now the everything seems to be working fine as configured. My only plans for the future would be to accommodate it in a whelping box custom built for it, with a little more room around the edges for mom. Again, thanks you for all of the helpful suggestions! Denise Quittmeyer Hobbshire Cavaliers ========================================================= "Magic Commands": to stop receiving mail for awhile, click here and send the email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?body=SET%20CKCS-L%20NOMAIL to start it up gain click here: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?body=SET%20CKCS-L%20MAIL E-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] for assistance. Search the Archives... http://apple.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ckcs-l.html All e-mail sent through CKCS-L is Copyright 1999 by its original author.
