[Sandy]

Just thought I would ask advice as I have loads of time before our next pups. I ended up with a large draw unit and I put rails all the way around, it was ideal but the pups kept getting stuck under the rails so I have seen american ones with rounded shelve type crush barriers, our Lab used to just jump in and never moved if one was trapped, fortunalty I woke up and monitered every feed and she soon left them when they had had thier feed. What can you all suggest, cardboard is far too  flimsy, I may end up making one again out of an old set of large draws and drill some holes around for 1" pipe to prevent role over...Any ideas peeps!

[OverWyreGrower]

The one used by the breeder of our boys was made out of MDF and lined with lino, then newspaper and vetbed.  There was a 'crush barrier' built into it..

See gratuitous puppy pics below!




Me, sat in the whelping box (so you can get an idea of size) with my eldest Max (at nearly 2 years old), with his weeny brothers and sisters around him


Crush barrier


Bigger puppies (we brought home the little brindle chap in the corner)

[faith0504]

lovely pics

[Samantha]

Oh how cute !!! .. what lovely pics !!!

[Sandy]

Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh so very cute and the box is what I mean, those role bars are not too good for my pups as they were so attracted to getting stuck under them...I did see one with rounded like tube and the shelf rail,,,,maybe a home made job would be far better but one that comes to bits to store!!

[OverWyreGrower]

Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh so very cute and the box is what I mean, those role bars are not too good for my pups as they were so attracted to getting stuck under them...I did see one with rounded like tube and the shelf rail,,,,maybe a home made job would be far better but one that comes to bits to store!!

A lot of the time, the pups did sleep under the crush barriers, but we never had one stuck... I think if you were good at metalwork/welding, you could probably make something with rounded metal barriers, but no-one was skilled enough to do that!!

The box in question hung up on 2 wall hooks in the garage when not in use/lent out etc

[Sandy]

May just get a joiner to make one!!

[Jackie]

My whelping box is home made and is 4 ft by 4 ft. It is made of MDF but with a coating on (like work tops) so that blood etc doesnt soak in. The roll bars for the pups are round wooden dowling sited approx 5 inches from the floor and wall.
 It is aslo 4ft high so that if the bitch prefers I can drape a blanket over the top to make the area dark as a cave.Most bitches prefer this.

The whelping box is joined together by metal L shapes on the outside. This enables it to be unscrewed and put away.
The front has an area which can go up and down as wanted to keep the pups in as they get older. This slides up and down and can be removed fully.

[Sandy]

THanks all, I found, to my upset, that Isaly, being a labrador with a large litter, kept sitting on her pups and jumping in to feed them etc so I also want to make a slide division so they can be put safely into one side and I can then let mum in, as I found it was easier for me to wake every 2 hours, then pop them into the smaller area when finished, also it can be removed when they are much bigger. I also want some either shelve type roll bar similar to the photo above or plastic pipe (like I saw on an american site) close to the edge as the smaller rail seemed to attract the pups and they kept getting stuck, I also could cover the pipes in that insulation, the box could be fairly high sided with a bolted doorway so that the pups can use it as a pen as they get older and Jackie, I like the idea of the tent top, I could certainly do that as last time I had a unit above part of the box that I made from a chest of draws with drilled rail holes and rails.   Well, we will see!