Day 4, Breakfast.

Everyone is enjoying breakfast in the whelping box.

Do you see how Kit has pushed the towel out from under herself and the pups? For some reason, Kit prefers to lay directly upon the newspaper. Everytime I put towels or blankets down in that area, she will have them pushed out of the way within a few hours.

Right underneath Kit is a recessed whelping disk, which is a moderately heated plastic disk built into the whelping box. Covered in layers of newspaper, the whelping disk makes a warm nesting area for mothers and pups and--unless she is hot and panting--Kit will usually settle there for nursing. If Kit is not in the box or is in a different place in the box, some of the pups will also stretch out on the disk for warm sleeping.

I don't know if you have noticed, but there are fleece blankets in the whelping box for added warm areas. The pups seem to find the fleece as appealing as the whelping disk--or even mom at times--and they can often be found laying on, or partially under, fleece.