Ritzy's puppies to Santee: Ritzy's puppies to Santee -the first week

Ritzy's puppies to Santee -the first week

RITZY (Goldmali Imagine)

SANTEE (Santee Sioux at Goldmali)

Sometimes things do not work out quite as planned!

We had been planning a litter from Ritzy's daughter Riley for about a year. She was to be mated to Santee -and indeed she was. Normally we would have a scan to confirm pregnancy carried out after about 4 weeks, but due to the Covid-19 outbreak that was not possible. I THOUGHT Riley was pregnant, and there was no reason for why she wouldn't be. Yet she wasn't gaining much weight. In fact, I said to my husband John that he needed to cut down on the food for Ritzy as SHE was getting fatter than Riley was!

Eventually RITZY started to look pregnant. We finally managed to get scans done and found out that Riley was not pregnant, but Ritzy was. And she was due to whelp in just a few days time. But Ritzy had not been in season for over 18 months, and although she had acted a bit flirty at the beginning of March 2020, there were no obvious signs of a season and we removed Santee from her and the other bitches just to play safe, and then didn't think much more of it. Clearly Santee had already mated Ritzy without either of us realising. A completely new experience and total surprise to us. Luckily it wasn't a bad mating and both Santee and Ritzy are hip scored - Santee as 11, Ritzy as 12. Santee has also been elbow scored as 0, his eye test is up to date, and he has been DNA tested negative for SDCA1 and 2. Ritzy's eye test is out of date and needs renewing, but there are no eye tests being carried out during lockdown so it will have to wait. We had not planned puppies from her again. Ritzy has been eye tested clear in the past, of course. We have never had a dog fail an eye test.

Pregnant Ritzy

In the early hours of Monday the 11th of May 2020, Ritzy gave birth to 4 puppies.

2 dogs and 2 bitches. THE GOLDMALI P LITTER.

The first pup was born just after midnight, a dog pup who later got the BLACK collar.

The second pup was born 00.10 am, a bitch who later got the RED collar.

The third pup was born at 1.48 am, a bitch who later got the YELLOW collar.

The fourth and final pup was born 2.01 am, a dog who got the BLUE collar.

No collars yet but this is Yellow bitch and Blue dog. I think!

Black dog and Red bitch.

Malinois pups are all born with colours very different to what they end up like as adults. They change from the day they are born until they are 2-3 years old. I was hoping that maybe there would be a pup that was grey, like Ritzy, but after a few days I realised all were fawn or red.

All four just an hour or so old.

One day old, collars are on. And a much better camera to use as my daughter lent me hers!

All pups gained weight straight away. Sometimes they lose weight in the first 24 hours or so, but not these. Four is of course a very small litter for a Malinois, with 7-10 and even up to 12-15 being more common. These pups will get a lot of milk and attention!