[bjh]

First of all congratulations on your new litter. I will be praying that momma and babies do well. You will have your work cut out. I don't even know where to begin on what all you are in for. I hope you have been doing some research on what to do.

Is momma alert and has she accepted her babies? What advise did the vet give you? Do you have puppy formula? It is important that the pups nurse if possible. It is important for the pups to get colostrum from the momma. She may not have much milk in the beginning so you most likely will need to supplement them.

How big is the momma? Hopefully she is a bigger girl so it will be easier for her to care for the pups. It will be very important to get the momma to eat lots of food. You will need to feed her about 4 times a day and she will need a calcium supplement.

The heating pad will probably be okay but you should have the pups in a whelping box with the heating pad only covering half the box. You don't want to make it to hot for the momma because that can effect her milk production.

I have only had one female that had a c-section and she only had one pup. She accepted the pup right way. In most cases the momma will accept the pups right away but occasionally I have heard of a momma that just won't accept their pups. You should be able to put the pups with the momma and you might need to hold her in the beginning while the pups nurse. Usually once the pups start nursing the new momma's natural instincts will kick in.

Please keep us updated on how everything is going.