Life at 3 weeks

The puppies are three weeks old tomorrow. I would say that it doesn't seem like it's been that long, but it seems somehow both THAT long and not very long at all. I'm a little frustrated because my wonderful, adorable mama has decided to opt out of nursing three weeks in. I've tried to reason with her and tell her that her CONTRACT specifically outlines that she needs to give me at least FIVE weeks of mama milk, but no dice. I started noticing her losing interest last week after I weighed them and they didn't fatten up as much as I wanted them to during week two.  Now, granted, they are honkers. But still, they didn't do the fatten up. So, I started paying attention to how often she goes in there and nurses and how long she was staying... and I don't know if she's thinking she's needing to fit into her pre-pregnancy skinny jeans or not, but she is NOT holding up her end of the bargain. But then, when you see her and them in relation.. it's hard not to be sympathetic..

And another thing, I'm not sure if I mentioned, but we have ANOTHER mama and babies in our rescue right now. They were born nine days before mine were. There was a brief moment in time when it looked like I might have both litters at my house, but an angel stepped in and offered to foster the other mom (or, more accurately, we begged her) and I did not end up having to do this in double time. That other litter has SEVEN babies and they are so ridiculously adorable it would make your teeth ache. And that mom?  She's like a MILK MAKING MACHINE.  Do you see how tranquil she is?  The lack of a look of utter panic in her eyes? 

So. Yeah. That's not what we have over here. 

I started out by supplementing them with Leerburg formula starting late last week and it was going well, they liked it. They reeeeeeaaaallly liked it. So much so that they were slurping it down so hard I thought they were going to swallow the little sponge I use to diffuse the formula (to avoid milk bubbles).  So, someone suggested I see if maybe they might be ready for bowls? I sort of had my doubts because they're really not even three weeks old. I was afraid they'd turn around and yell at me, "WHERE'S MAH BOOB?"

But far from that, they've really taken to it drinking their formula. Ok. Well, perhaps more accurately, WEARING their formula and slurping it off each other's paws, but it's going well!  This is a video of their first bowl feeding. I call it, "My Super Advanced Genius Babies"

Just multiply this by 5-6 times a day.. and there you have it. Life at 3 weeks. We go through a lot of baby wipes is what I'm saying.