Getting Ready...

Below is our whelping box where Maggie delivers her babies and stays with them for a couple of weeks. I put an ex-pen around the box to keep out nosy dogs and kitties...! I remove the whelping box when the pups are able to crawl over the edge and keep them in the ex-pen. I double the size of the ex-pen when they are around 4 weeks old so they have more room to run around.
Here are some supplies I use for the birth. Lots of towels, peon forceps to clamp the cord, scissors to cut the cord, dental floss for tying the cord, a bulb syringe for helping get out mucus from the puppies' mouths, colored id collars, betadine to clean the cord, a scale for weighing the pups at birth and everyday for two weeks (then every 3 days), glucose supplement for Maggie while she is working hard in labor, styptic gel for cords that tend to ooze after cutting. I also have a thermomter for taking Maggie's temperature right now to watch for it to drop to 98 degrees. She should deliver within 24 hours when her temp. stays down. We use our den for the puppy room so that we can watch the puppies and Maggie at all times. It is decorated with a lot of artwork from my daughters!