Boxers are so funny. They don't wag their tail. They wag their whole rear end hehe.
The Cost of Raising A Litter
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awwwwesome. thanks for sharing the baby photos!
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Congratulations! You were pretty excited before TC ever got there, so you must be REALLY excited now.
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Thanks for sharing all of this great information!
I am certainly grateful for breeders like you, Pat & Midge so that I can have my healthy perfect boy without having to do any of that work myself! I just don't know how you gals find the time!! :p -
We are very excited about our upcoming litter. Having a litter is a lot of work but there are also rewards including haveing a chance to get to know the new puppy owners.
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TC went in for a wellness check today. She needed to get her Heartworm prescription up to date, so the vet also did another ultrasound. The appointment added another $25 to the running total which now comes to $2720.21 and we got these really cool pics to show off. You can see spines on some of them now. I think one of the pics is actually a second one of the same puppy but my mom was a little unclear about the details.
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I love this tread. It is very informative, and a form of it should be turned into a sticky.
IVOSS: I think you may go over my original estimate of 3000 for a litter. Although I wouldn't include the fanconi test as part of it, because it is getting more common to have the test long before a possible breeding, and some breeders even are testing all the pups before selling them. (which is nice)
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By the time you add in just the Vet fees after whelping, lvoss will be way over $3000
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I also love this thread, very cool. Especially the baby pics. I know I"ll be thinking about more than just Halloween on Halloween.
Are the pups homes all in CA, southern or northern or both? Man if I still lived in the Inland Empire I would very feebly ask if I can come over and help socialize.But I'm lucky that I will get to do that here with yodeldog's litter
Can't wait for EVERYONE's puppy pictures! And it's going to be all around the same time too. Maybe we should make a special place for that on the forum… -
A new arrivals thread or topic heading would be cool!!
Good idea Mauigirl!!
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When it comes to homes, it sort of depends on what TC gives us but most of the litter will be in California, Southern and Northern. One may go to North Carolina.
We love having people come over to help socialize puppies. My mom is already asking people to come over and play with puppies when they are old enough. Me and my husband will be going down for both the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays so we can get in some time playing with the pups. Luckily on Thanksgiving weekend there is also some lure coursing and racing events down there so I can wear out my dogs and then head over for a puppy fix.
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One may go to North Carolina.
One of these days we're going to drive to the Carolinas for coursing. Would be cool to meet the people behind Suddanly Basenjis and Jokuba Basenjis. Then we might get to meet TC too
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I have a question here for those of you doing ultrasound and xrays on preggers moms. Are you doing it to: determine how many puppies, because you didn't think she was preggers, because you fear some crisis or ??????????
I can say only once has any animal (basenji) I owned been x-rayed and that was because of a singleton and we were not sure it was the only puppy. The bloodhounds different story because not being always the natural whelpers that B's are - it's important to know when you're done or to pinpoint some issues that might indicate C-section.
I have noted that vets are 'recommending' this now and trying to determine if it is for $ or if it has given some valid information?
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I do ultrasound to know if preggers…. I like to be able to let my puppy people know we are really on our way and we should have puppies.... I don't go too much by the count with the ultrasound, depending on the Vet. I do xrays 3 days before the due date, cause I do want to know how many we will have.... Then if you have 4... and the bitch had 3 and seems to be stopping and its been awhile.... instead of "I guess she is done" you know there is still one there... and I can finalize to my puppy people exactly what we have as far as numbers and then if we will not have one for someone at the bottom of the list, we can refer them on.....
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I do the ultrasound to confirm pregnancy, like Pat I want to be able to tell my puppy buyers that there really are puppies expected. Also, it is nice to see that they are progressing normally. I don't normally do a second ultrasound but have found that both my mom's vet and mine will do them for free if we come in for something else just to satisfy their curiosity that the pregnancy is on track.
I do the x-ray to make sure that I know how many pups to expect, I want to know if I need to call the vet.
I know of one litter of Manchesters that may have been saved if the owner had done ultrasound or x-ray. All the pups were in one horn and the bitch's uterus twisted when she went into heavy labor because of the uneven distribution. If they had known before labor that the pups were so unevenly distributed they may have been able to save the pups by doing a c-section.
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I agree that it is usefull for some reasons but have heard of some doing this so many times during the gestation that it seems a little excessive.
I had a friend who just had it done on her bitch (not a basenji) They said - oh yeah there is at least 4 and all looks fine. There were 3 - one was quite big, was breach and stuck and they lost that one - so in that case - not terribly medically helpful.
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How much information an ultrasound can give is highly dependent on the skill of operator. My vet looks for sacs and heartbeats at 28 days to confirm pregnancy and give a rough count. Bitches can reabsorb puppies from the time of that first ultrasound at 28 days and actual whelping so the count is not always accurate even if the operator is very skilled.
The reason for doing x-ray in addition to ultrasound is that the x-ray a few days before whelping gives a more accurate count and allows a vet to see if the skulls will pass through the pelvis. It won't really help with positioning. Rally's second litter was all lined up correctly 3 days prior to whelping but one had turned by the time she went into labor and got his butt wedged in the birth canal neccesitating a C-section. So even doing everything, is no gauruntee you won't have problem but the emergency vets at Davis were very happy to have all that information that I had because I had done ultrasound and x-ray. We lost the one stuck puppy but they saved the other 3.
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It sounds like its about stacking the odds for a successful litter yes?
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Yes, and being prepared if something does go wrong.
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A Saturday at the vet with puppies, $1200 bringing the total today to $3920.21
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I kind of stopped posting the running total because my mom, the co-breeder, didn't always let me know how much she paid for some services. Here are what I know of the rest of the costs for raising the litter.
Dew Claw removal and wellness check for mom and puppies - $90
First Shots + Microchip - $310
CERF Exams - $140
Second Shots - $115
Registration - $140
AKC DNA Profile - $140New Total - 3565.21
This list doesn't include the added food expenses, paper towels, carpet cleaning, etc but I never keep track of that stuff. It also doesn't include the emergency vet visit when the pups were born. I know the estimate had been $1200 but I did not see the final bill and my mom won't tell me what it was.
Here is the cost of the stuff in the Puppy Pack that we sent home with each puppy.
Collar - $4.99
Lead - $6.99
Trial Bag of Food - $2.50
Variety of Treats that the puppy likes - $5.99
Nylabone - $3.50
Toy that smell like home - $3.99
Blanket that smells like home - $1.00
The Puppy Primer by Patricia McConnell - $7.95
Homemade Puppy Winter Coat - $5.00
Homemade Adult Winter Coat - $10.00
Snuggle Puppy - $13.95
Rou's Tips for Basenjis - $13.00
Total - $78.86 per Puppy Pack.So a low estmated total is $3801.79 for the litter.
My price for my puppies comes out to $850 and my mom kept Bella so that would mean $2550 to offset costs.
So on this breeding we lost $1251.79 or the way I like to think of it, Bella cost us $1251.79. She is still cheaper than Sophie so I think we did OK.
