oakeydoak1 Posted January 8, 2012 Share Posted January 8, 2012 I have only had winter litters in the past and find it quite easy to keep the babies warm, but I am just wondering about Summer. My bitch is due in about 5 days and we are expected to reach the early 30's. Her whelping room is nice cool tiles, but if it gets really hot it may get a little warm. Just wondering how others keep their babies cool? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rebanne Posted January 8, 2012 Share Posted January 8, 2012 frozen milk bottles of water wrapped in a towel, my babies would drape themselves over them Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hilaryo Posted January 8, 2012 Share Posted January 8, 2012 Once past the brand new baby stage, I used partially frozen hot water bottles - 2 in the box and 2 in the freezer. I found towels too thick so I used pillow slips wrapped around twice. They would fight over them :D Fans are good, wet towels also. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
**Super_Dogs** Posted January 8, 2012 Share Posted January 8, 2012 I used frozen water bottles. However the puppies preferred a wet towel. We would rewet the towel a few times a day. On a hot day all the puppies would be in a pile on the towel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leema Posted January 8, 2012 Share Posted January 8, 2012 Like others have said, I use frozen packs (like you'd put in an esky) and wrap them in a thin blanket. The puppies can cuddle them like they'd cuddle a heat pack. I'd only put air conditioning or fans on the puppies if the puppies were spread out (i.e. 'looking hot'). I can normally achieve enough cool air flow with windows open instead, but would use air conditioning if things were getting very gross. The room I whelp in heats up easily, and we have a bitch here (rescue) due to whelp in a week... I think it is likely that I will need to turn the air conditioning on to make things bare-able in here, but time will tell. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trisven13 Posted January 8, 2012 Share Posted January 8, 2012 Like others have said, I use frozen packs (like you'd put in an esky) and wrap them in a thin blanket. The puppies can cuddle them like they'd cuddle a heat pack. I'd only put air conditioning or fans on the puppies if the puppies were spread out (i.e. 'looking hot'). I can normally achieve enough cool air flow with windows open instead, but would use air conditioning if things were getting very gross. The room I whelp in heats up easily, and we have a bitch here (rescue) due to whelp in a week... I think it is likely that I will need to turn the air conditioning on to make things bare-able in here, but time will tell. We've done the same but have used fans & air-conditioning on the days of 35 plus. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tentapride Posted January 8, 2012 Share Posted January 8, 2012 As others have said I have previously used frozen bottles of water or ice packs (wrapped in a towel) around the edges of the whelping box. But if Im not around I also worried that you pups would get a chill & I didn't like using that until pups were about 2 weeks old. Now I use the cool champions cool mats. Worth every cent, no risk and work brilliantly and Im happy to leave with mum & pups unsupervised. My pups are now 3 days old and thankfully I now have aircon but they still got a bit hot yesterday so I removed all excess bedding as mum was getting hot but bubs were fine overnight without the aircon. Whelping box is lined with marine carpet laid over newspaper so they aren't just on a bare floor. I should add that although I use aircon pups are in a cave like wheping set up so no chance of aircon or fan giving the pups a chill. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LizT Posted January 9, 2012 Share Posted January 9, 2012 Given that both my bitches whelped litters during a colder month in Melbourne I would relish the opportunity to have to worry about keeping them cool. Although I think it could be safer to heat a room than potentially expose a newborn to a chill?? Don't new borns like it hot anyway 35 degrees plus in the box? I guess provided they can have enough room to lay away from each other they will be comfortable just as they will huddle when it's cold. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christina Posted January 9, 2012 Share Posted January 9, 2012 I have 18 day old pups. It was over 40 degrees here for 3 days & almost that on a few other days. In a huge cardboard box in the lounge, 3 foot square. A cot sheet over the top, to adjust & the ducted air con running & rotating the box according to temperature & how they are acting/lying. Fan for the cooler times of evening & crack of dawn. Mum lay on the tiles & just hopped in & fed them as needed. They were all good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SwaY Posted January 9, 2012 Share Posted January 9, 2012 Given that both my bitches whelped litters during a colder month in Melbourne I would relish the opportunity to have to worry about keeping them cool. Although I think it could be safer to heat a room than potentially expose a newborn to a chill?? Don't new borns like it hot anyway 35 degrees plus in the box? I guess provided they can have enough room to lay away from each other they will be comfortable just as they will huddle when it's cold. Easier to heat then cool. Heat laps take the chill out of the air, The pups breathe in the warm air from the heat lamp. Heat mats warm a puppy put not the air they breathe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miss Danni Posted January 10, 2012 Share Posted January 10, 2012 I also have a litter that is 18 days old. Most of the pups are happy with the box temp being about 25 degrees, but I am attempting to keep them a bit cooler than that. One of the boys grizzles at 23 degrees and screams at 25 degrees! He's too cool for his own good. The whelping room gets the afternoon sun, so it relatively cool until around 2pm. In the morning before I go to work, I put down frozen HWBs under a sheet and the ice bricks if I need a bit more cool space. Yesterday I put a wet towel down when I went home at lunchtime and then turned on the AC. AC turned off when I got home from work and just had the fan on overnight with the window open. Pups are very happy with this arrangement, tested it out before I went back to work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oakeydoak1 Posted January 10, 2012 Author Share Posted January 10, 2012 Thanks all for hte tips, after I posted our temperatures have dropped to 19 and 20!!!!!!! Might be heating them after all. But we all know how quickly the weather can change, so at least now I am prepared. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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