Quick question about puppy litters

[tzigane]

I'm going to make this short and I'll include pictures later, but as of yesterday morning I'm fostering a litter of 9 puppies until they're 8 weeks old (hopefully not much longer than that). Right now I have it set up so there's a giant kennel attached to an exercise pen with shower curtains under each and newspapers on top. I don't want to tape the papers down because that will make getting them up difficult, but they keep moving the papers and chewing on them and pooping on the plastic (or the kennel bottom), which kind of defeats the purpose of having papers and makes it even more difficult to clean up the papers since they're in pieces. Obviously some is going to get on there, but how do I minimize the poop/pee on plastic?

 

[YodelDogs]

How old are the puppies right now? What breed or approximate size?

 

[stardogs]

LOTS OF LAYERS! When I fostered puppies myself and when I set up kennels for pups at two different shelters, we layered the papers at LEAST 1/2" thick at the beginning of the day so we could just strip the dirty/torn layers off throughout the day. Then once or twice a day you kennel the pups and repaper their area. Worked like a charm!

 

[tzigane]

How old are the puppies right now? What breed or approximate size?

Right now they're 4-5 weeks old. The pups are maybe a pound to a pound and a half each. Mom looks like some kind of bully/hound mix.

LOTS OF LAYERS! When I fostered puppies myself and when I set up kennels for pups at two different shelters, we layered the papers at LEAST 1/2" thick at the beginning of the day so we could just strip the dirty/torn layers off throughout the day. Then once or twice a day you kennel the pups and repaper their area. Worked like a charm!

Brilliant! So simple and so obvious. Why didn't I think of that?! Thank you!

 

[YodelDogs]

They are small enough and young enough to litter box train. It isn't hard to do but it does require a good deal of patience and repetition. With that many pups, I would use a plastic container like you use to store things under the bed. It's low enough that they can get in but high enough to hold in litter. Use Feline Pine or Yesterday's News cat litters or if you have a Feed-N-Seed type store get Equine Pine. It's cheaper than Feline Pine and the same thing.

 

[stardogs]

We layered in a pattern to interlock layers, too, btw: one sheet of layered papers, next set overlapped by about 2" to the right, next layer overlapped 2" on the bottom edge of the first set, fourth layer overlapped 2" over the third layer's side and second layer's bottom, repeat until you hit desired thickness.

If you run low on papers, call your local newspaper and ask if they have any leftovers. Often you can get tons free.

 

[adojrts]

Depending on where you are and the outside temps, I would be trying to get them outside after each meal and start the house training now. It can be done, but not in snow or cold temps with pups that young.