Cairn puppies!

Polly (Carradine Polly Flanders) and Jassu (McPippan Highland Queen), two of our cairn terrier bitches got babies two weeks ago! Jassu gave birth to one boy and one girl, and Polly has four boys. Polly's boys are a combination of English, Swedish, Austrian and Finnish lines (see figure below). Jassu's and Nöpö's babies are also a mixture of various nationalities, most notably Finnish, Swedish and Irish.


The puppies were born during a short period of time. Polly's first boy came to the world on Monday night, March 30th. Jassu's babies were born around noon the next day. Cairn puppies tend to gain 20-30 grams of weight per day. We've noticed that this is the case also with Polly's and Jassu's puppies. Nonethless, Nasu, the smallest of Polly's puppies, gained only very marginally in weight during the first four days. As a precaution, we decided very early to give him extra puppy milk from a bottle as well as Aptus Puppyboosteri, a beetsings product, many times a day. We were more than happy when we noticed that Nasu's weight began to increase more rapidily during the fourth and fifth day: during the second week, Nasu has been clearly the fastest growing puppy of the two litters! By Friday, April 10th, the weight of all puppies had either doubled or even tripled.



Like all puppies, Jassu's and Polly's babies mainly eat and sleep. At times they are picked up for weighing, photography - or kissing! The mothers, Jassu and Polly, live with their babies in puppy boxes on the floors of which we've placed sheets of newspaper. Polly's and her puppies' box has been placed in the livingroom. Jassu's and her babies' box is in our bedroom. We have been very careful to separate the two bitches. It is known that wolf bitches have killed each other's babies. As well known, dogs are very different from wolves but we take no risks. Jassu and Polly have shown great interest in each other's puppies but the doors are always closed and the two mothers always eat in separate rooms. Jassu and Polly have not even seen each other's puppies - they've heard them though...

We've been happy to notice that cairn terriers are a popular breed in Finland. 575 cairns were registered here last year, a notable increase from 2008. At the same time, the cairn terrier became the third most popular terrier breed in Finland. Seemingly, popularity has not been a temporary phenomenon but also we have been contacted by a considerable number of potential puppy buyers. We've been able to find five good homes for the puppies already during the first two weeks. And we are optimistic that the sixth new home is found soon! At the same time, we are more than happy to notice that these wonderful puppies live with us six more weeks. We have not even seen their eyes open yet...