General whelping notes
I am posting here my notes from one previous litter – Noona’s first litter out of Teak, born Sept. 20, 2008 – as a resource, in case these notes might be helpful. See the PDF file below for my temperature and birth notes. (Dec 2019: I am also adding a second whelping notes pages with data from Aia’s litter with Bridger, born May of 2019. This info should give a very balanced view of whelping times. See General whelping notes II.)
The PDF file shows that I began to take Noona’s temperature around day 49/50. This would give me an idea what her normal temperature is. I tried to take the temperature around the same time each day.
About day 56 I begin to take the temperature twice a day, morning and evening. You will see that at Day 56 Noona’s temperature dropped from the 101 range to a 100 range.
Day 60 Noona’s temperature dropped to 99.9 in the evening. Next day, Day 61, she began the day with a temperature of 99.5. This was a pretty fair indicator to me that whelping was imminent. She began labor that night at 11:35.
I post the birth times for those who may not have an idea how long it might take for a bitch to whelp a litter. If you look at Noona’s whelping times, you will see an amazing symmetrical correlation. First pup and third pup were born at the 1:00 time, second pup and fourth pup were born at the 11:30 time. But these pups were born 12 hours apart. This litter took almost a full 24 hours for four pups to be delivered. There were 10 full hours between the births of pups #1 and #2 and between #3 and #4.
One thing I have learned from whelping bitches is that – if you want a natural litter – you have to let things happen in their own due time. No two bitches of mine have ever delivered their pups in the same manner. Ivory’s first litter she delivered four girls in succession, each coming about an hour apart; then 12 hours later a single boy was born. Kiva’s litter out of Cameron she delivered her first pup around 9:30 AM and her last pup was delivered around 9:30 PM, so a full 12 hours for her to deliver a litter of 6 live pups(with one additional pup stillborn).
ABAKAN Samoyeds 