Violet's 2025 Puppies ~ 2 Weeks Old

Puppies change so much in the first two weeks of life!  Mini schnauzers are born weighing around 6-8 ounces.  Their eyes and ears are closed.  Like most babies, they primarily eat and sleep.  After two weeks, they are about triple their birth weight, they can see and hear, and they can almost walk.  The puppies' weights as of today are Cole - 1lb, 10oz, Anita & Ethel - 1lb, 9oz, Naomi - 1lb, 6oz, and Starla & Anne - 1lb, 5oz.  Every day they are more alert to their surroundings.  Their chief concerns remain eating and sleeping even at two weeks old, but they are definitely waking up to the world outside their cozy whelping box.  So, here are the adorable little chaps...
*Click on their names to go to their individual pages.*

Naomi

Starla

Cole

Anne

Anita

Ethel

The puppies are very fun to cuddle at this age because if you get them feeling warm and safe, they drift off to sleep.  We are just beginning to hold them for short periods of time since they prefer the warmth and safety of their mom and siblings at this age.  In the first week of life, Violet spent all her time with them.  Now at two weeks old, she leaves them for an hour or two throughout the day to play outside and go about her normal life.  She never has to be reminded to go back to them; she's always there to feed and clean them.

Our care for the puppies at this age is focused on taking good care of Violet.  We feed her a high quality diet, and she may "free feed" while she is nursing puppies.  We keep our schnauzers on a strict diet of only being fed twice a day, but a nursing mama needs to be able to consume a lot of calories to support feeding six puppies.  Therefore, Violet may eat as much as she wants (i.e. "free feed").  Hydration is very important as well.  We keep things very clean in the whelping box changing the bedding several times a day.  This is the beginning of teaching the puppies that where they eat, sleep, and play is a clean space.  Starting at three to four weeks old, we will begin their official house training using the Misty Method.  At this age, we do not need to bathe or clean the puppies because Violet takes care of that; and let me tell you - she takes the job seriously and these puppies' coats gleam!

I'll close with a few photos of our interactions with the puppies.  As I mentioned, we keep our interactions with them short, but we also want to give them early introductions to all kinds of life experiences.  The good news is that since they are in main living area of home much of their early socialization comes without any effort from us.  Simply us living life gives them introduction to all kinds of sights, sounds, and smells.  Just in the last few days, they've heard a blender and vacuum cleaner, heard voices of our guests, heard a washing machine, and so much more!  We treasure these little guys, and they are so much fun to snuggle!  And those piles of puppies - aren't they adorable?