What are the signs of an overheated puppy?
When puppies get too hot, they may sleep away from their littermates and mothers. In this case, you should either turn up the air conditioning (in moderation) or move them to a cooler room.
Whatever you do, avoid pointing a fan or air conditioner at your puppies. Doing so could cause them to become too cold, giving you a new problem to tackle.
Newborns Temperature And When Can They Regulate Their Body Temperature
What is the typical newborn puppy temperature? The normal temperature of a newborn puppy is about 97°F. This is the temperature where you know your puppy is safe and healthy. However, the average adult temperature is 100.5-102.5°F.
This shows that the puppies’ bodies gain more heat with time to reach the adults’ body temperature. While the difference in the temperatures between puppies and adults seem negligible, it is not.
This slight difference is due to the difference in the body’s functions and the dog’s size.
Therefore, a puppy’s body temperature rises each week until they reach about four weeks. At this age, their bodies’ temperature will be around 100°F (Slight differences may occur between different breeds.)
However, puppies will not yet be able to regulate this temperature until seven weeks old. Starting from this period, puppies can fight slight differences in atmospheric temperature to keep their bodies warm.
How to Keep Puppies a Comfortable Temperature?
It’s normal to feel like you’re nesting with your female dog as she prepares to give birth. So, put some of your nesting energy into designing a space where your dog will give birth to puppies in an ideal environment to keep their body temperature comfortable.
Below are some tips to help you do so.:
You can make it easier for your female dog to keep track of her puppies and contain them in a small, warm space by setting up her birth area with a box. You can also use a heating pad to ensure the puppies don’t get too cold.
You’ll want the box’s edges low enough so she can easily climb in and out of it while the sides are high enough to prevent her puppies from doing the same.
You’ve likely already planned on offering your dog and puppies bedding, but it’s worth mentioning it here, for bedding isn’t only for comfort. Instead, it’s also a tool to help keep the puppies warm.
Some people prefer using newspapers or paper towels as bedding for ease of cleaning. However, I recommend using towels or sheets, for they’ll help retain more body heat. Of course, you’ll need to regularly clean and change whatever bedding you decide to use.
Puppies are typically eager to start exploring before they’re able to fully regulate their body temperature. So, if they have free reign of your house—or worse, the outdoors—they could stray too far from their mother and suffer from getting too hot or cold.
For this reason, keeping the puppies in a contained space is vital. Make sure the mom has plenty of room to wander around. Otherwise, the stress it could cause may create other issues for her and her pups.
If you’re keeping puppies inside your home, you may not think you need a thermometer. However, it’s best practice to attach a thermometer to the inside of the box where the puppies live, as it’ll have its own microclimate.
Although getting too cold is often the biggest threat to puppies before they can regulate their body temperature, there’s always the risk that they could overheat too.
How To Care For Newborn Puppies Ep 3 Keeping Them Warm
Puppies need the extra heat, as they are unable to regulate their body temperature until several weeks old. The rectal temperature of newborn puppies is about 97°F and rises each week until about 4 weeks of age when it is a normal adult temperature of 100.5-102.5°F.