Molly is now 46 days pregnant – just over 6 weeks!!! Which means…..more importantly…. we now have less than three weeks to go!!!! I am now weaning Molly on to Puppy food so that she has a higher value nutrition food. Molly’s nutritional needs are obviously greater but she doesnt have room for all the extra food she would need if I kept her on the “adult” dog food.
This stage of her pregnancy is where the puppies develop quite dramatically. IF we were to xray Molly’s abdomen we would be able to see the spines quite easily as the calcification of the bones are now taking place!
Between weeks 5 and 6 the puppies will have developed their eyelids and also the little ear flaps will now be present. The ear flaps remain closed until after they are born (opening up between 13-17 days old). The ears look like little buds! The eyes also remain closed until after birth, opening up gradually at the age of 10 to 15 days. (One of my favourite stages of development in a puppy is seeing those gorgeous eyes peeping back at you!).
Now at 6 weeks of development the puppies digits will have formed (digits meaning toes!). The sex of the puppy can now be determined. The puppies have almost doubled in size in the space of a week as they are now approximately 6cm in length!
As you can see in the photo below Molly’s tummy does seem to be enormous! She still has some growing to do (when I then start getting anxious she might “pop”)!
