You certainly want to know about every minute of your sweet puppy. Last year we did a documentary about our breeding program in which we showed where our Frenchies live and we also wrote about how our program has grown over the years. In this article, we share with you how we help our little puppies on the TomKings Puppies farm, from the first moments of their lives until we find a forever loving family for them.
Right after their birth
We gently “wake them up” until we make sure they breathe and cry. The vet checks if everything is fine and we take them home. The average birth weight of a Frenchie is 0.5 lbs which double each week. Their size strongly depends on the size of the litter; when there are a fewer of them they can be as big as a two-week-old puppy from an other litter. Newborn puppies are deaf and blind and absolutely helpless so we are here to assist their mother to nurture them.
In the first two weeks
They are breastfed every 3 hours, and then their mom stimulates them to pee and poo. Not all mothers are eager to do this, in which case we assist them with a dam, warm cotton towel. The puppies spend the rest of their time sleeping (they often seem to be dreaming!).
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They are so cute as they love to huddle together, but we also keep them warm with an external source like an infra lamp. As the puppies are very small, there is a threat that the mom accidentally smothers one or more of them. So, we always have to stand by to rescue them if this happens or keep them in a special ‘box’ to avoid them being pressed against the wall.
In the first 4 weeks
We make strict precautions to keep the newborn babies sterile to avoid the risk of them being infected. They sleep in the house with us, and only a small circle of carers are allowed to touch them who use lots of hands sanitizing.
Moms usually breastfeed their puppies until they are 3-6 weeks old, but if they don’t have enough milk or some puppies are more eager than others, we add formula milk to make sure each frenchie has the same chances to grow. As the mother has less and less milk we gradually switch to give them milk from a bottle and then crushed food.
The puppies open their eyes when they are 8-12 days old, and then they are able to hear – a whole new world opens up for them. At the age of 3-4 weeks, the little explorers start crawling and then the first few shaky steps. At this stage, they are already very playful and start love-biting each other.
At the age of 5 weeks, they start running around the farm, play with each other and with us and this is when the first signs of their adult personality come out.
When they are 6 weeks old
The ratio of their body is the closest to what it’s going to be like when they grow up. We recommend to see them at this age, as later, in their ‘teenage years’ their limbs can disproportionately grow, to change back when they are adults.
This is when all their teeth are in and can be very sharp, they are not aware of the fact how much pain they can cause with their bite to each other (or to us).
Between the ages of 5-8 weeks, they are full of energy, and always up to a nasty trick. 🙂 We don’t keep them in kennels, they can run and play on the farm the whole day and live in the house with us. We love watching them grow, play and enjoy life. This is the period when they socialize a lot with each other and with us and when we start their potty training.
They are regularly checked by the vet
… and they get all their vaccinations according to the following:
- shot Nobivac Parvo C against Parvo at 5 weeks old
- shot Nobivac DHPPi/L: combined vaccinations against canine Distemper, Hepatitis, Parvovirus, Leptospirosis at 7 weeks old
- shot Nobivac DHPPi/L: combined vaccinations against canine Distemper, Hepatitis, Parvovirus, Leptospirosis at 9 weeks old
- shot Nobivac Rabies against rabies at 3 months + 1 day old
Our puppies are dewormed every two weeks from the age of 4 weeks old and they also get Simparica Trio against ticks, fleas and heartworms right before they leave.
As you can see we help, monitor and love them as family members and our aim is to find forever loving families for each of these beautiful, sweet puppies.
The article was written based on the experience of the TomKings Puppies Team, the above procedure describes how they treat Frenchies on their farm, TomKings Puppies have been breeding French Bulldogs for 10 years on their farm. All the pictures in the post belong to them and show a puppy from their breed. Check their available French Bulldog puppies here, or if you have any questions or comments let us know below the article.
