The American Beagler Forum

i have a female about 7 1/2 months old. the dog is in excellent health and is doing great. i was interested in finding out what the average age was for a dog to first come in heat. i think i'm gonna wait til her second cycle to breed her but when is the first cycle and how long before the second? also about the whelping pen. i have a kennel that i built thats off the ground by about 4 feet. in the back there is a box closed off with soft cedar saw dust in it .. would that be good to raise the pups in? tell me all you can! thanks guys

A bitch will come into heat on the average at age 8-11 months. separating her from any males now would be a good idea since she is 7.5 months old. I hope you do wait until at least the second heat (6 months later on av.) because your bitch is still just a growing puppy herself during the first heat and you won't have enough rabbit tracks in front of her to determine if she's worthy of breeding or has any glaring faults that you wouldn't want to perpetuate.

Off the ground is fine for whelping, but you must be able to keep the whelping area around 80 degrees until the pups are at least 2-3 weeks old. No bedding should be used other than newspapers or something that won't get stuck to the pups and give mom a mouthful as she tries to clean those pups. A pig rail or whelping rail should be built into a whelping box to prevent mom from squishing a pup behind her into the side of the box. The rail should be approx. 4" - 6" in depth and attached to the walls approx. 4" from the floor. If you are having a summer litter, the box should be well-vented to keep mom and pups from overheating.

Just a few thoughts. I'm sure you'll get additional replies that will be of help.

i just got this female over a week ago. she's very well bred and she's already been started and i have hunted her a few times and she's hunting like an old veteran.. thanks for the idea on the rail around the inside of my box. i've just got into keeping and raising my own beagles. so far i have 3 beagles the 7 1/2 month old and then i have a male pup and a female that are almost 4 months old. i've already taken your advice and put the female away from other males. i have another male beagle thats just a grade dog and i moved her to another stall to prevent an accidental breeding. i also have a question about the dog food for my dogs, i started out feeding them sexton brothers dog food that is 26% protein and they were loving it.. i figured however it would be best to give them puppy chow until there around a year old so i bout some purina puppy chow. the ingredients are nearly the same as the sexton bros. but the pups seem to like it a lot more.. i can mix the food and they will pick out the purina and eat it first! thanks for your help bev it's greatly appreciated. i look forward to you asking a lot of questions for me.. and trrusttt me i'll have a lot of them !!

i also seen where you had talked to ppl about keeping there dogs warm in cold weather. i live in easter ky and we do get some cold weather. i've had dogs my whole life not beagles but other kinds. and i've found that if u just keep them dry and give them water and bedding they are fine. the coldest stretch of days i ever seen was when i was around 12 years old it was below 15 below everynight for nearly a week.. one night the temperature dipped tot he coldest i had ever seen which was 36 below zero. my dogs were in there houses filled with straw. never had any problems