Shepherds Rest Farm

Breeding New Anatolian Shepherd Import Lines - Direct From Turkey

Name:  Shepherds Rest Farm

Location:  Newberg, Oregon, United States

Saturday, March 31, 2012

Nazli's Two-Sire Litter at THREE WEEKS OLD!

FAWN FEMALES:


Birnur (above) weighed 7 lbs 10 oz yesterday at exactly 3 weeks old.
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Ilknaz weighed 7 lb 4 oz.
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Hediye ("Diya") is doing terrific.  She weighed 3 lbs 11 oz.
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BRINDLE MALES:

Biber weighed 7 lbs 15 oz.
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Soner weighed 7 lbs 6 oz.
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Above is how puppies are nursing now, when Nazli lets them. 

When Nazli is tired of puppies demanding milk, she hides out INSIDE the whelping box, since she had decided to have the puppies OUTSIDE the whelping box . . . and they haven't figured out there is such a thing as a whelping box nearby to climb into!!!!
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Sunday, March 25, 2012

Nazli & Puppies

TWO WEEKS OLD
(Scroll down to next blog entry for individual puppy pics and stories!)


Fawn females above.  Brindle males below.
 
 
 
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Nazli's Two-Sire Litter TWO WEEKS OLD

DNA samples (cheek swabs) have been sent to AKC.  Results back in 6 to 8 weeks.  Let's hope 6!  Stay tuned for results (hope they are conclusive so it doesn't have to be redone!).  I will post "results" as the DNA profile sent to me by AKC so my blog readers can have fun discovering themselves who sired each pup!

3 FAWN FEMALES:

Shepherds Rest Ilknaz weighed 20.4 oz at birth and 65.7 oz at two weeks old. Ilknaz means first born girl.  She was one of the first two to whelp from Nazli, so the "naz" part of her name is appropriate.  Puppies are already given registration names and microchipped for the DNA identification.  Buyers can give the pups any call names (nick names) they want. 
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Shepherds Rest Birnur weighed 22.7 oz at birth and 76.8 oz at two weeks old.  Birnur means first light in Turkish, since she was discovered already born at first light with her sister above.  It's pronounced "burner."  Fitting for her name, she will probably be so speedy she will burn up the trails.
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Shepherds Rest Hediye weighed 22.3 oz at birth and 27.3 oz at two weeks old.  Yes, you read that right.  This little girl is a fighter.  Hediye is Turkish for "gift."  Despite having trouble gaining weight, she beat the odds and is thriving as of the past couple of days.  Now she is gaining weight beautifully, but much smaller than her siblings (at least so far).  Doesn't stop her from getting milk though.  After losing 3 oz in 2 days when first born, she was fed her mother's milk with a dropper.  When mother's milk lessened to fit the need of the nursing puppies and I could no longer get enough from mother, I fed her goat milk.  There was a problem with gas so she was given a human infant gas remedy and tube fed.  Then the vet and I decided that goat milk wasn't being tolerated very well by her, so we switched her to puppy formula.  It was a very long first week and a half. 

The first 3 nights (after she had lost significant weight) she began to sleep nights on my chest.  I set the alarm every 2 hours and would spend half an hour heating the milk and feeding her, 2 more hours of sleep, half an hour of feeding, and on it went.  She spent days on a heating pad and was fed every 2 hours.  When I worked, the vet "babysat" and took care of her.  After a few days of feeding by dropper, then a few days of feeding by tubing, Hediya, called "Diya" for short, was able to transition to a bottle, and got so feisty and energetic that she could no longer sleep with me (yay!), and was in a box next to my bed on a heating pad.  

Then the night came when I was so exhausted that I didn't wake up all night.  Lack of REM sleep can really be exhausting!  Horrified when I woke in the morning, I realized what had happened, and I expected to find her dead!  I only found a very hoarse and hungry puppy.  That day she latched onto her mother by herself (probably still starved from her overnight ordeal) and within a couple days, I was able to leave her outside with mother overnight.  (I had latched her onto her mother several times a day to ensure a good transition back to mother, even though she wasn't efficient at getting milk.)  Temps were hovering about freezing overnight and the puppies were with Nazli under one heating lamp in a 3-sided shed, bedded on straw.  Again I expected to find Diya dead in the morning but she has insisted on living and is going to be quite hearty given everything she survived!  She is also a cuddler! 

Nazli is a wonderful mother, allowing me to remove her puppy then tease her with it several times a day.  She never hesitated to immediately accept Diya back!
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2 BRINDLE MALES: 

Shepherds Rest Biber weighed 21.1 oz at birth and 77 oz at two weeks old.  Biber is Turkish for black pepper, pronounced "B bear."  Not only does he look like he has been well peppered, but he looks like a little black bear!
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Shepherds Rest Soner weighed 20.4 oz at birth and 74.9 oz at two weeks old.  Soner is Turkish for "last man," since he and his brother were the last two puppies born.  Soner is pronounced SOOnur.
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Friday, March 23, 2012

Anatolian Shepherd Puppies 2 Weeks Old

Nazli's Two-Sire Litter
 
 
 
 
 
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Friday, March 16, 2012

Nazli's Two-Sire Litter at 1 Week Old

 
 
 
 
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Saturday, March 10, 2012

Nazli Litter from Capar and/or Duman

 
 
 
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Anatolian Shepherd Puppies: One Day Old Faces

FAWN FEMALES:
 
 


BRINDLE BOYS:
 
 
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Friday, March 09, 2012

The Two-Sire Litter Is Here!

Nazli was intentionally bred to both Capar and Duman. 
Puppies to be DNA tested to determine sire of each in order to acquire accurate registration papers. 
GUESS THE SIRE OF EACH PUP! 
DNA results to be posted here on the blog
with easy instructions to figure out parentage!


3 fawn females born, followed by 2 brindle males.  Full story below.


This litter was quite an experience.  So exciting planning it, ordering a zillion DNA kits, waiting to see if we would be able to guess who sired which puppy.  Pat Hastings (famous show judge and author) told me two-sire litters were always (in her experience) either all from one sire OR an unbalanced mix of one or two puppies from one sire and all the rest from the other sire, that it was never even close to half and half from each sire.

Initially, we were in for a huge disappointment.  The ultrasound at 4 weeks gestation resulted in the conclusion of NO pregnancy.  Disbelief.  After all those ties and with TWO males!  Vet offered a second ultrasound to be done 2 weeks later, saying that if the puppies were maybe half a week younger than we thought, then maybe there could be a puppy in there.  Second ultrasound . . . yep . . . one puppy, possibly two.  Waiting for the birth . . . thinking that with only one puppy the possibility of a live birth was shaky . . . knowing that sometimes it isn't enough to trigger the mother to go into labor.  Preparing ourselves for no live puppies. 

Last night the barn monitor was on, had been on for a week.  Woke to Nazli whining, digging, and rearranging the straw at 3:30 and again at 4:48 a.m.  Woke again at 6:00 and heard the faint contented sound of one puppy.  Listened carefully to see if I could hear 2, but no, it was only one pup.  I was sure.  Whelping was over and I at least had one pup.  Glad the birth was born natural (no C-section needed) and the pup was alive. 

Got to the whelping area.  WHAT?!  There were TWO puppies!  YES!  Feeling very THANKFUL as I did the morning chores. 

Checked on Nazli and pups after chores.  NO WAY!!  THREE puppies!  Brought tears to my eyes.  Amazed and very happy.  The impossible had happened.  There were 3 fawn females.  I was walking around shaking my head and repeating "three puppies!" in my mind, convincing myself I had three.  Since Nazli refused to whelp in the whelping box (new trial of indoor/outdoor carpet per another breeder recommendation) and whelped in the straw outside the box, I tried to move the puppies into the whelping box.  Uh, bad idea!  She grabbed the first one and when I blocked her way out of the whelping box, she almost jumped OVER the whelping box with pup in mouth. 
"Okay, alright, have the puppies where you want."
My son moved the heat lamp. 

A bit later checked on mother and puppies . . . must be a vision, mirage, trick of some sort!  FIVE puppies!  Can't be!  Complete shock!  No.  YES!  No.  YES!  Impossible!!!  Went running into the house yelling there were FIVE puppies out there, cracking my son up (I don't usually . . . ever . . . act like that). 

Had to call the vet and tell him I was so happy he was wrong! 
Lesson:  Ultrasound results are not fail-proof. 
Shepherds Rest Farm was a very happy place today!
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