4-Weeks-Old!

The puppies are growing so quickly. They can hear now, and wake with a jump whenever they hear Shisa's food pour into her dish. They perk up any time they hear us walk over, or if there is any noise around them. They also dislike the fact they are too small to be able to walk through the gate to explore the rest of the house or make sure they get attention from us.

They are starting to play with toys, or at least carry them around. They haven't figured out playing tug of war with them. And of course, attention from 'their humans' is far preferable to playing with a toy, even if the human is trying to play with them using the toy. The puppies are playing and wrestling with each other a lot more, including at night, which means we are woken by the sound of energetic pups as they play on a regular basis. Of course, more active pups means more blurry puppy photos, and I forgot to take almost any videos this week. I'll do what I can to rectify that for next week.

They also have started being introduced to solid food. I started with putting puppy food, water, and formula powder in a blender, so they could lick it up. The pups were very interested, though some weren't sure what to think till I let them lick the food off my fingers.

It wasn't long before they were happy to try the food without it being fed to them. Of course, this meant exploring the food too, and they are not neat eaters at all.

Shisa has no problem with the puppies getting themselves filthy though. It just means she gets to clean them up and eat the food too. I started introducing them to puppy food that has been soaked till it is soft, and then broken up so that the pieces are small enough for them. They weren't sure about it, though they've started trying to lick mama's food. But if they are offered bits of the soft food by hand, they are quite excited to eat it, which means I get to know just how sharp their little teeth are getting. (Sadly, no pictures of them with the more solid food yet. Apparently almost all my photos this week were of them with the liquid food.)

Of course, they are much more interested in nursing from mama, than they are in eating their own food. So as soon as mama shows up, their meal is completely forgotten.

Even though mama wants to be able to eat her own meal in peace. Sadly, that is not an option. Soon, likely this coming week with how fast the puppies are growing, the pups will be big enough to actually nurse while she eats, unlike now, when they are just desperately trying and falling all over each other.