First Litter Checklist: What I Wish I'd Known Before My First Whelping
My first litter was 8 puppies in a borrowed whelping box, with a vet number I had not actually called yet, and a buyer list that was a screenshot of a Facebook comment thread.
That was years ago. They were good puppies. They went to good homes. None of that was because I had any idea what I was doing.
This is the checklist I wish someone had handed me before that first whelping. Ordered roughly by when you need each thing. Specific where it helps.
If you are about to whelp your first litter, copy this, check off what you have, and use it as the gap list for the next 4 to 6 weeks.
001 / 6 weeks before due date, the foundation
The whelping box. Build or buy one big enough for the female to stretch out fully with puppies around her, plus a pig rail (a bar 4 inches off the floor to keep her from crushing a puppy against the wall). Plywood with a removable side is the working version. Plastic kiddie pools are not whelping boxes despite what the internet sometimes says.
The whelping location. A quiet room with a door that closes. Not the living room. Not the laundry room with the dryer running. The female needs to feel safe and you need to be able to control temperature and traffic.
Temperature control. A heat lamp (with a guard, mounted, not free-hanging) or a heating pad with a thermostat. Puppies cannot regulate their own body temperature for the first 2 weeks. The ambient temperature near the puppies needs to stay around 85 to 90 degrees Fahrenheit for week 1.
A working thermometer. Two, actually. One ambient thermometer in the whelping box. One rectal thermometer for the female, because her temperature dropping below 100 degrees is the signal that whelping is about to start.
Your vet on speed dial. Call the vet now and ask: do you take after-hours whelping emergency calls? If no, find one that does. Have the number written somewhere you can read it at 2am.
Your emergency vet on speed dial. Different number. Find it before you need it.
002 / 4 weeks before due date, the supplies
A list of what should be sitting in a labeled bin in the whelping room before week 8 of pregnancy.
- Clean towels. Many more than you think. Plan for 20 to 30.
- Hemostats or clean string for tying off umbilical cords.
- Sharp, clean scissors. Sterilized in alcohol, kept in a sealed bag.
- A bulb syringe for clearing puppy airways.
- A digital kitchen scale, accurate to 1 gram, with a bowl that fits a newborn puppy.
- A notebook and pen. Not your phone. A real paper notebook for whelping notes. Phones die at the wrong moment.
- Disposable gloves. A full box.
- Iodine for umbilical stumps.
- Karo syrup (light corn syrup) for low blood sugar emergencies.
- A small box with a heating pad for puppies who need warming separately.
- Puppy milk replacer and a 3cc syringe with a nipple (just in case).
- Plain Greek yogurt (calcium for the female during whelping).
- Vanilla ice cream (sugar boost for the female between puppies, vet-approved).
Build the bin once. Restock after every litter. The list does not change.
003 / 2 weeks before due date, the prep
Ultrasound or radiograph. You should already know how many puppies the female is carrying. Radiograph after day 55 gives the cleanest puppy count. The count matters because it tells you when whelping is done.
The female's space. Move her to the whelping box now so she gets used to it. If you wait until labor starts, she may try to whelp where she sleeps instead.
Her diet. Switch to puppy food in the last 2 to 3 weeks of pregnancy. The female needs the extra calories and the puppies will eat the same food when they wean.
Your sleep. The week of due date, plan to sleep within earshot of the whelping room. Whelping happens overnight more often than not. The female does not call ahead.
The vet check. Confirm the radiograph count, the female's general health, the expected due date window, and the after-hours plan. One last call before show time.
004 / Whelping day, the moves that matter
Temperature drop. The female's rectal temperature will drop below 100 degrees Fahrenheit 12 to 24 hours before labor. Start checking temperature twice a day in the last week. When you see the drop, set up for the long night.
Stage 1, restlessness. The female will pant, dig at the whelping box, refuse food, and look uncomfortable. Can last 6 to 12 hours. Stay close but do not crowd her. Females have whelped fine for thousands of years without supervision. Your job is to be ready, not to direct.
Stage 2, delivery. Puppies arrive 30 to 60 minutes apart in most litters, though up to 4 hours between puppies is not always emergency. If she has been pushing for more than 30 to 45 minutes without producing a puppy, call the vet. If she is producing puppies but the count is wrong (you knew 8 puppies were in there, she has had 3 and stopped pushing), call the vet.
For each puppy. Note the time of birth. Note the sex. Note the color or markings. Weigh the puppy on the kitchen scale (write the weight in the notebook). Confirm the puppy is breathing and nursing. If a puppy is not breathing, swing it gently in a downward arc to clear airways, then rub vigorously with a towel until it cries. If that does not work in 30 to 60 seconds, the bulb syringe.
Confirm the placenta count matches the puppy count. Retained placentas are an emergency.
When the count matches the radiograph count and the female has settled in to nurse, whelping is done. Eat something. Sleep when she sleeps.
005 / Week 1, the work that defines the litter
Daily weights. Every puppy gets weighed at the same time every day. A healthy newborn gains 5 to 10 percent of body weight per day in the first week. A puppy not gaining is a puppy in trouble.
Temperature. Ambient temperature 85 to 90 degrees Fahrenheit for week 1. Drop 5 degrees for week 2. The female will move away from the heat source if it is too warm. The puppies will pile if it is too cold.
Dewclaw removal (if applicable for the breed). Done at 3 to 5 days by a vet. Not at home. Not at all if your breed standard keeps them.
Photos. Take photos of every puppy on day 1. You will need them later for buyer updates and for your own records. Use natural light. Get the puppy on a solid color background so the markings show.
Calls returned, messages held. No buyer updates this week. You are not running the buyer side this week. You are keeping the puppies alive. Auto-respond on email that whelping happened and updates will start in 2 weeks. Buyers will wait.
006 / Weeks 2 to 4, the gradual handoff
Week 2. Eyes open around day 10 to 14. Worming on the schedule your vet recommends. First buyer update can go out. Photo, weights, all alive and healthy.
Week 3. Ears open. Puppies start crawling, then walking. Set up a larger pen attached to the whelping box. Introduce a shallow water dish.
Week 4. Start weaning with a slurry of puppy food and water. The female will start refusing to nurse as the puppies' teeth come in. Second buyer update with new photos.
Throughout. Daily weights continue. Vet visit at 4 weeks for first vaccines. Pictures every few days for your records and the buyer updates.
007 / Weeks 5 to 8, the buyer side wakes up
Weeks 5 to 8 are when the buyer pipeline becomes the dominant work.
Week 5. Temperament starts to show. Take fresh photos. Send buyer update with the picks-coming-soon timeline. If you have not already, every approved buyer needs to know their position in line for this litter.
Week 6. Pick day if you do early picks. The female is mostly weaned. Puppies are eating solid food.
Week 7. Final vet check. Microchips placed (or scheduled). Final photos for each buyer's puppy. Contract finalization with each buyer.
Week 8. Go-home week. The pickup day checklist runs for each buyer. Final payment, contract signed (if not already), microchip transfer paperwork, registration paperwork, the food they have been eating, a blanket from the litter, the care guide.
If you have not built the pickup-day checklist yet, the breeder operations checklist post has the structure.
008 / Things I forgot the first time
The list of things nobody told me before my first litter.
- The female may not eat for the first 24 hours after whelping. That is normal. Force-feeding her is not the answer. Vanilla ice cream worked when nothing else did.
- Puppies do not all look the same color at birth. Markings change. Take notes and photos on day 1 or you will be guessing which is which by day 7.
- The whelping notebook is the most important document you create that week. Time of birth, weight, sex, color, placenta yes/no. Put it on the kitchen counter, not in a drawer.
- You will not sleep for 72 hours. Plan childcare or partner support around it. Caffeine has limits.
- The first time you see a stuck puppy and have to make the vet call, you will second-guess everything. Make the call. Vets would rather walk you through a non-emergency than show up to an actual one too late.
- Sell the puppies to the buyers in advance, not after. The breeders who try to "see how the litter looks" before assigning are the ones who end up with 2 unsold puppies at week 9.
009 / What to do before your first litter
If you are within 6 weeks of your first whelping and your buyer side is not set up, here is the priority order.
- Get the contract sorted. The contract kit at $59 gets you the editable .docx the same day.
- Build the buyer application. The buyer application post has the structure.
- Get the deposits taken. Even if your buyers are friends-of-friends, a deposit makes the commitment real and protects you from the buyer who decides at week 6 they want a different color.
- Get the supply bin built. The list in section 002 is the full bin.
- Talk to your vet about the after-hours plan.
The animal side will mostly go fine if your female is healthy and you have a vet ready. The buyer side is where most first-time breeders trip. Build the buyer side now, while the puppies are still puppies in your head and not 8 small mouths that need everything at once.
Dusty Mumphrey runs an East Texas breeding program and built Breed Ledger because nothing on the market did what his own program needed. He writes field notes on contracts, software, and the part of breeding that happens at the kitchen table.
