It’s nice to post predictable puppy progress. We are all happy with a few days of quiet normality!

MUNI skipped the 14 oz level and showed up in the scale at 15.38 oz this morning! Good, steady gain.

I dug out our guides and confirmed that I need to put away the flash for a while. MUNI’s eyes should be opening any time now, and a bright flash could injure a young eye.

So, please forgive the photos for a while. They’re going to be grainy (because of the fast ISO we need for low light), with a small area of focus (because of the aperture setting for the dim light), and possible have movement (because of the longer shutter speeds for the light).

Still, I think MUNI’s adorableness will come through.

Day 10 – Mother and Daughter
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Zenith is getting her digestion under control, agreeing to eat boiled chicken and egg, but foregoing the cottage cheese. She’ll be offered rice at dinner with the chicken, too. But, who knows if that will meet with her approval.

MUNI is moving some on her own and is taking some of her naps a few inches away from mom in the box.

There are a few rose-colored glasses online sites that say the first three week’s of a puppy’s life are the easiest because the mother does all the real work. It’s nice to have a few days where these cock-eyed optimists are correct!

Day 10 – Daughter, Mother, and Human
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MUNI is continuing to grow at a satisfyingly fast rate. Yay!

In addition to looking at her chubby, wriggling body and healthy, shiny coat, Geoffrey weighs her every morning to make sure our subjective observations match objective measures.

MUNI’s day starts with an after breakfast (or after her 8th breakfast at 8 am) weighing in.

MUNI  at her weigh in on the towels lining the bowl that’s on top of the food scale.
CLICK on the picture for a larger, clearer version!

This morning at 8:10 MUNI was 13.89 oz, up from 12.52 yesterday at 7:25. She is growing at a good clip!

MUNI’s low weight was recorded a week ago, Tuesday, September 25. That morning at 7:30 she weighed 6.77 oz.

Depending on which who you listen to, puppies are supposed to double their weight in either 10 or 14 days.  MUNI made it in 7. Puppies are also supposed to gain 10% of their weight daily for the first 10 days. She is on track by this measure, too.

We are happy with MUNI’s gusto for food and life. We hope it continues!

About the only issue we have right now is Zenith’s picky eating. It’s not that she’s not eating. Rather, she is very fussy and changes her tastes from meal to meal.

For breakfast today she ate some boiled chicken, cottage cheese, and 1/4 of a raw egg. She didn’t want the wet Science Diet food that she gobbled down for a few meals a couple days ago. She doesn’t want kibble, of course.

The cottage cheese finally gave her diarrhea around noon (as predicted by the vet), and she also spit up a small portion of her breakfast on that trip outside.

Midafternoon I thought I’d replace the missing upchucked calories by giving her more egg… and I decided to lay off the cottage cheese for a bit.

Well! She didn’t want the raw egg!  It was only after I heated it like a scrambled egg, cooled it, and brought to her in a new plate did she decide she would eat the 1/2 egg.

For dinner, she still wanted no wet Science Diet or kibble. But, she ate a whole heated scrambled egg and over 1/2 of a small boiled chicken breast.  And, raw carrots and Zuke treats are back on her approved list.

Good thing Zenith is very cute and being a very good mother to MUNI! And, let’s hope that her pickiness is the worst problem we have in the coming weeks.

Paws crossed!