Before you decide to breed your Keeshond, you have to consider the cost, the health of your dog, determine if you can sell the puppies, as well as ask yourself if you think you have the skills to take care of a mother and her puppies. Breeding a Keeshond is something that can end up being too much for someone with no experience.
The Health of Your Keeshond
Before you breed your Keeshond, you need to have a check up with a vet to ensure the mother and the father's health before you breed. If there are any disorders, you should not consider breeding. This can be discussed with your vet. If you cannot show proof of health to potential buyers of the puppies, they may not want one. You need to ensure the parents' health to ensure the puppies' health.
Cost of Breeding
If you do not own the male, you will have to pay for stud service or allow pick of the litter. This is the smallest cost of breeding. You need to provide the prospective mother with a proper diet before breeding even takes place. There are special foods and care needs leading up to breeding.
You will also need to provide plenty of foods during the pregnancy and even after the pups are born. The puppies will need a heat lamp to help keep them warm when the mother is away and you will need to have the puppies checked if any problems occur during the birth. You also need to have some special food to start feeding the puppies when it is time to be weaned from the mother.
The puppies will need to be dewormed before they go for adoption and they need to have their first shots and health checks. The cost for all this care and supplies can be more than some can afford.
Finding Homes for the Puppies
Since you are not going to keep the puppies for yourself, you need to find a good home, which requires taking applications to determine who is a good fit and who is not. This is important so that the puppies do not end up in a rescue somewhere because the people did not know what they were getting into with a puppy. You will have to screen all perspective owners before letting the puppies go with them.
Can You Take Care of the Mother and the Puppies?
This is something that most people do not think about before breeding. If you have a first time mother who just wants to be a mother once and a while, you have to supplement the mother's milk with formula and feed the puppies yourself. This is not once or twice a day, it is every two hours. If you have four puppies, this could take you about an hour to do. You will have to be the mother if she does not want to. Taking care of puppies can even be compared to taking care of a baby!
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