whelping box – Sand Spring Chesapeakes

Glory is due to have her and Bear’s (Lzy Mtn Piper’s 3-D Brown Bear SH) puppies the weekend of February 6th. Now is the time to break out the whelping box, set it up and have Glory get used to it. You know from the last breeding I did in July Glory used Nellie’s old wood whelping box that I painted to try and make it seem “new” to her.

The wooden box.

I thought for this litter Glory deserved a new whelping box so I did my research and found that Dura-Whelp was the way to go by Breeder Base. I ordered one up, ordered a pad to go with it and waited for it to arrive which took 2 weeks (I did order it on a Saturday). Yesterday was the day to set it up as I had off of work.

What is Dura-Whelp?

*Dura-Whelp® is the Original PROFESSIONAL whelping box.
The worlds Cleanest & Easiest & Safest whelping boxes“since 1994”

Corrugated plastic is somewhat flexible yet extremely durable and easy to clean. Our patented floor-to-wall design eliminates parts with complicated slots, grooves and gaps for poop/urine to get trapped in & leak through. Our flat and open surface area allows for easy cleaning! Outdated wooden boxes are not only heavy but impossible to keep sanitary. Painting introduces diseases, skin lesions, etc. & the probability of puppies eating the paint. The entire Dura-Whelp® Box can be easily cleaned with Bleach, Quatricide, other detergent or disinfectant.*

*from Breeders Base website

The shipping box doubles as a storage box.

I hauled this big box up stairs to my bedroom all by myself so it was actually quite light. My helpers were there ready to help me out. Gambler thought he had the job of opening the box as he gets to open ALL boxes. He was taken back when I told him to kindly remove his teeth from the box. So he just stood and watched me.

Preacher helping me open the box.

You want to be careful opening the box so that you can use it again to store the box in when not in use. I pulled out all the components and got started assembling.

The side rails.

You want to be careful when using a scissors to cut the plastic away from the side rails. They put plastic over the velcro when they were securing the rails together. I almost cut right through the velcro not knowing what it really was.

The instructions.

The box came with instructions on assembling, cleaning and care of the pad that I bought with it.

The base.

After everything was unpacked and opened up I laid down the base in which Preacher had to check it out.

The side piece which is the box.

You center the one piece box on top of the base.

The velcro on the sides.

The velcro was attached to the base, you then had to peel off the sticky plastic along the whole side then press the small side up onto the side of the whelping box. The sticky velcro will then adhere to the tall side of the box and stay there for future use. This was the most time consuming part. It took me forever to peel that sticky tape off the velcro. You do this for all four sides.

The velcro on the side rails.

The pig rails have velcro on them to that needs the sticky tape removed. You then put the rail into the open slot on the box and push the velcro side of the rail up against the side of the box. This will help hold the side rail in place around the box. There are 2 side rails that get attached into the holes in the box then the other 2 side rails have lips on them that butt up against the first side rails and then you screw them in place.

Attaching the side rails with 4 screws.

I had to use a screw driver to screw the screw into place, it wasn’t that difficult.

Velcro to attach the pad to the base.

The box came with one disposable pad liner that goes under the pad. The pad that I bought separately came with 4 velcro pieces that attaches to the base and then the pad will attach to that velcro. The pad is made of a faux fleece with rubber on the bottom to keep it from sliding around. The pad can be put in the washer on gentle cycle and cool dry in the dryer or hung out to dry. It’s a good idea to purchase 2 pads so when one is in the washer you have one in the box.

Front view.

Ta Da it’s done. The front of the box has a removal door that you can keep in place to keep everyone in or you can pull it out when it’s time for weaning and let mom come out. There is another weaning box that can be attached to this box when the time is right so then they can move from one box to the next. There are corner pieces that you can purchase also to help save the corners, I didn’t get these or the extra weaning box.

The side view.

The box I bought was the XLG box which is 48 x 60 in. For right now I got a K & H heating pad for warmth which looks really small inside the box. It is a 12 x 23 in. I’m not sure if I’m going to use it or not. Breeder Base has a puppy incubation system called the Therma-Whelp which I may look into getting. I’m not digging the heating pad idea with the cord in the box even know it is lined with wire to prevent biting but the cord will have to be strung over the box and not sure how that will all work out. I used to use a heating lamp with Nellie and had no problems with it but I wanted to try and stay away from that with Glory as Glory tends to run hot and she hates heat so I wanted to do something where Glory could be cool and the puppies warm.

Gambler and his gender crisis.

Of course Gambler had to be the first one to hop in the box with the door up. I think he is having a gender crisis and wants to be a girl so he can have a special box.

Time for Glory to check it out.

Come on mom? Is this really for me? That means I’m about to have little burr heads again and have to spend time in the box with them again. She checked the box all out and made sure it was to her liking. Last night thou she didn’t sleep in it she slept on the floor right outside the box.

It’s great!

It took me 35 minutes to unpack and set this all up. Now that it is all put together and I know how to do it taking it down and putting it back up will be a snap.