Mmmm Ribs!!

The pups had another go at raw meaty bones today - in the form of beef ribs! They were all excited about the treat, and settled in to work on the bones with no prompting! In the picture above, Black and Orange are sharing nicely, while Light Blue gets a short rib all to himself!

Yellow and Pink were being nice sisters sharing a long bone!
And here Light Blue and Green are being good brothers and sharing too! (not to be outdone by the girls, of course!)

And after all that hard work, Yellow passed out with her human mommy, nose down!

The pups are such a joy right now, and so very playful and curious with each other and their surroundings. And this week marks some big weight gains as well - after finally pinning them down Tuesday night for some weights, here's the breakdown: Pink is at 5lb 3oz; Lavender is at 4lb 8oz; Royal is at 5lb 5oz; Light Blue is at 5lb 3oz; Yellow is at 4lb 7oz; Orange is at 5lb 8oz; Green is at 5lb 8oz; and Black is at 5lb 3oz. So Green is no longer the heaviest pup, tying for first place with Orange, and we have a 3-way tie with Pink, Light Blue and Black for 3rd place. Overall the pups gained an average of a pound again this week!

If I were King

How would you like to have eight Chinook puppies for playmates and you were only six? Check out these photos from today of Asher with Emma's pups. The puppies absolutely love to chase and six year old boys love to run - a perfect playtime match!

5 weeks old - and chicken wings for lunch!

So this week marks 5 weeks old for the pups! And how much they have grown - just a week ago they barely had teeth, and now they have little razors in there! And what was gangly flopping around is now coordinated running! And they're even almost too big for their outdoor transport device :) Except that they're now too big for me to get an accurate weight - the scale I currently have only goes up to 5 pounds, and all but 2 of the pups are over that it seems. Once I am able to figure out how to get a better weight, I'll share those numbers as well!

Check out that coordination - Royal running full gallop towards his littermates! And the ears!!!

Little Yellow is still the smallest of the litter, but catching up nicely - about 1/2 pound shy of 5 pounds this week! The added protein and introduction to more solids seems to have helped her!








And today marks their first introduction to chicken wings - they had no problem at all figuring out what to do with them! I hadn't expected anyone to have the jaw strength to actually crack the bones, but Royal and Orange proved me wrong! They were so excited to chow down - and each went to their own little corner (see Lavender hiding in the outdoor pen below!). Of course, once Royal finished his (after I scooped up the bigger bones, of course!), he went after his littermates' delicacies. They have been getting cooked chicken added to their gruel since yesterday, and will start to get ground raw chicken and duck added during this week, eventually weaning them off of the baby cereal and entirely onto whole foods. So far so good - a very happy gaggle of puppies!!

4 weeks old!

So the pups are 4 weeks old now (well, more like 4 1/2 weeks now!) and I'm finally getting around to updating their weights and pictures - well, more appropriately, they finally slowed down enough for me to take their weights and pictures! What an amazing week from 3-4 they have had! They are running around with much more coordination now, and they have TEETH! Emma has decided that she'd like to start weaning (and who can blame her, with 8 sets of sharp teeth coming at her like a pack of sharks). So starting this past Sunday, I increased their solid foods from once to three times a day. This week, in addition to the baby cereal mix they were eating last week, they are being introduced to some chicken, rice, veggies and fruits (baby-food style). So far so good, and they are eating and growing like champs!
So, without further adieu - here are the big babies :)

Green (left) weighs in at 4lb 12oz this week (though it was hard to tell, as he was almost too big for the scale!). Yellow (right) weighs in at 3lb 6oz (still the smallest, but gaining nicely)

Royal (getting kisses from Auntie Luna) weighs in at 4lb 1oz this week.

Lavender (right), working with Light Blue here to take down Luna (gracious auntie), weighs in at 3lb 8 oz this week.

Orange weighs in at 4lb 10oz this week, and is giving the boys a run for their money!

Pink weighs in at 4lb 7oz this week.

Black shows off his athletic skills, and weighs in at 4lb 5oz.

Light Blue chills out in the grass, and weighs in at 4lb 8oz.

Stay tuned for next week - when the pups will be introduced to their first chicken wing!

Pups are on YouTube!

The pups are four weeks! Yesterday I visited and took photos while they enjoyed a nice spring day in their yard, eating, running, playing and sleeping. (Did I leave something out? :) They are very interested in the sounds in their neigborhood! Pink is going to make a good retriever as she was playing with a stick dropping it and picking it up again, while all the others were puppy napping.

You can see how the Riverstone pups are spending their growing up time on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FpKA5Egprpc

Here's a few photos of the puppies on the move - last week they teetered around learning to use their legs, and now look at them motor!

The Outside World

After the prison escape last night, we decided to erect the temporary fence in the yard for the pups to go outside and play. But just how do you transport 8 squirmy 3.5 week old pups outside? In a rubbermaid tote of course!

Little Yellow was excited to check out the new sights and smells outside - including some leaves and grass!

After making short work of adventuring, Yellow and Green (the littlest and biggest!) curled up in my lap for some snuggle time!

And Ms Orange, so far the guardian of the little pack, was front and center to let us know of another dog walking by - check out that early stack!

We have an escapee!

So Wednesday night marked the first escape out of the whelping box. Ms Pink made it up and over the pig rails and into the great beyond! So I figured I would take the pig rails off and buy us another couple of days at least... but then she decided she wanted OUT and climbed up over the boards anyway, no pig rails involved! So I decided to remove the front of the whelping box and open up the room to them - they were so excited to be running all over the place! Look out world!

This picture is of my son with Orange and Black, who tackled him once we sat on the floor!