Welcome

To Keetch’s Bull Breeds Breeding page. This just a guide line on what experience that we’ve had over the past 5 years. You may think that is all easy and that you going to take loads of money out of your breeding well that’s not the case. It’s very rewarding but if you are doing it for the money your doing it for the wrong reasons. I could go on for ever about what to do and what to not do but I think ive said quiet enough. If you got any specific questions do not hesitate to e-mail us here

The Breeding Process

It is advised not to mate your bitch on her first season. Have a bit of Respect for your bitch, she’s still a Baby really The bitch normally comes in season twice a year. Starting at 6 months right up to 10 months. Our Motor and Ruby didn’t have their first season until they was both 10 months old. Its best to let your bitch have at least two or three seasons before allowing the bitch to mate. The stronger the bitch is the heather the pups are.

The Season

When do you know its the right time to mate your Bitch. Your bitch should be season for up to three weeks. In them three weeks its best to start matting on the 10th or 15th day in to her season. ( 10 to 15 days towards the end of her cycle ). Once over that time you may be too late. Your bitch will start to swell around her back end, and she will be bleeding for up to 10 days, until she go’s to a pale red colour. That’s about the time your looking for. The bitch should be ready to mate.

The Stud Dog

Finding your self a good suitable Stud Dog. Select the stud dog with care because he can make all the difference to the outcome of the mating. Find out a bit about the dogs background and make sure there are no serious faults in his make up. He should be very fit and medically healthy. Look at his Pedigree. Find out what he’s like with people and children is he a happy or aggressive dog. Because this will make the makings of your pups. Also Has the stud dog been proven ?.

To the right is our Keetch’s Blue Troy now he has been proven a good few times now and is the most happiest male dog we’ve ever had, so would yo be with four bitch’s around all the time LOL. This isn’t the best photo of him, its just so hard to take one of him because he don’t keep still long enough.

The Mating

Mating the dogs. find a nice quiet place to mate your dogs, like a back garden or a nice clean yard basically where there’s no people and other dogs about to disturb them. Some dogs might attempt to savage the bitch and owner, in such cases a muzzle is essential. That also applies to the bitch as well. If you’ve not done this before its best to have some one who knows what they are doing, cos its not just Wham Bam thank you Mam. There’s a bit more to it. cos when the stud dog has finished doing his thing he’s going to try and jump off ( NOT ) he’s going to be tied to the Bitch and both of them are going to try and part from each other. by doing that you can damage both dogs. remember they are Stuck together after all. You’ve got to lift the stud dogs back leg over the bitches back so that they are back to back. and hold them so that they cant doing any damage to each other. Make sure you talk to the bitch and stud dog gently and calmly so that they are not frighten on what’s going on. they will be tied together for up to 20 to 40 minutes maybe more. Don’t go throwing a bucket of water over them that’s a load Bull. or though I do no some one who has done it !!. As soon as the dogs brake free make sure that you get the Stud dog away from the Bitch as soon as posable, just in case he nuts off at the Bitch. You would have the hump if you was stuck together for 40 minutes or more. Also mark on your calendar the date of the mating, which will be 63 days from the mating. We normally give the bitch three ties just to be on the safe side. Some people might not be so lucky and only tie once, because they live so far away. But that’s just as good.

How can you tell

How do you know if your Bitch is in Pup ?. You can go to your local vets and have a scan done on her at about 5 weeks on, or you can do it the old fashion way and wait. We used to sit their saying to each other is she or isn’t she in pup !. just wait, your soon find out when she just blows up. then you no its time to get things together for your Bitch. Like making a Whelping Box make sure that you have a big but not too big WHELPING BOX with side bars, that’s to stop the mother from laying on her new born puppies. Then line it out with news papers, LOTS and LOTS of them, cos there will be with out a doubt a lot of mess.

Click here for the whelping Chart, that’s to tell you when your bitch has been severed and when she’s due to have her puppy’s 63 days normally that is some times they come early!

Whelping Calculator

Click here for Whelping Calculator Chart page 2. This will help you to more or less pin point the date of your bitch’s pups it is an calculator with the day that you served ( mated your bitch ). It will all be explained on page 2 we do hope that is helps you.

The Whelping Box This Whelping Box is going to be your Bitch’s and puppies home for the next Six to 8 maybe Ten weeks. by having this Whelping Box. the Mother and Pups will feel save and protected from diseases and all common germs. Here’s a little tip for you all. We put a rubber like mat inside the whelping box ( that fits all the way round the box ) then news paper and then put pet bed on top of that. You can get pet bedding from most pet shop, ( what it dose is keep the puppy’s and the bitch warm and dry, all there wee go’s straight though the bedding and on to the news paper ). Also that way the rubber mat will stop all your bedding from moving about and getting the pups all tangled up in the bedding.

As it says in the picture, Size according to breed of dog. We normally make a whelping box about 4 feet x 4 feet x 2 feet in height. and leave the front so that you can slot the wood back in to the required size.

The Delivery

Every bitch is different when it comes to giving birth Most Bitchs deliver their puppies with out any help. but some times you might have to play the midwife when needed. So you must be prepared to help your bitch if she needs you. if you don’t no what your doing find some one who dose . it could result in making your bitch nervous. Just keep on looking in every now and then just to make sure every thing is OK. Take our Bella for instance, she wont have her pups until IM in the room with her and nine times out of ten you will have to help her out. The same goes for our Blue Motor she didn’t know what had hit her. When Motor gave birth to her first son she just looked at it as if to say” what’s that” ?. I was the one to brake the sack and hand her the pup so that she could clean it. Then she took to it like a duck to water. The pups always find there way to the mothers teats ,its amazing really ,cos they to straight to it. Make sure that the room is at a good temperature, not boiling hot just right. then leave her to whelp.

The Placentas

The mother is going to be full from eating all them Placentas ( afterbirths ). believe it or not buy eating them she’s getting all the Nutrition that she needs to feed her puppies with. She might not want to eat for a day or two. So don’t worry that your bitch isn’t eating . Just make sure that she’s got clean water and the whelping box is CLEAN. and when she’s ready to eat she will wolf it down. Feed your bitch regular two or three times a day. that’s where I give the mother the LACTOL milk cos its rich in fat and calcium and vitamins, not to much I normally give the bitch a bowl a day. also make sure that your bitch is producing lots of milk, its not hard just give one of the bitches teats a squeeze that should tell you if she’s producing enough milk.

Warning

Some times its not that uncommon to still have a puppy or two, or a placenta still inside the bitch. If you think that your bitch is a bit poorly and burning up and acting a bit strange. Then do not hesitate to take her down the vets ASAP. The vets will either giver an injection to flush her though, or a scan and then a C- section should it come to that.

Panicking

Also you might find that your bitch will panic to the point where she will try and hide her puppy’s, she will keep on picking them up, crying and growling at you. Some times she might bite you if she feels unsafe. You might have the happiest bitch in the world but when it comes down her pups she will do any thing to keep them safe, especially if there’s other dogs about the house. Pleas do not be put of by this she only thinking of one thing and that’s her baby’s.

The first week

I find for the first week of your bitch giving birth to all them lovely puppies. is always the worrying one. All sort of things can happen. As I said the room temp has to be right, the mother might lay on them when she’s feeding the pups. one or two might die cos they are just to week or there’s some think wrong with them. Don’t get me wrong its got its good parts and it also has its bad parts as well. Like when you’ve got to put a pup down Cos you know in your heart that its not going to make it. ( I hate doing that bit ).

Then there’s always one or two pups that need bottle feeding. That’s when the fun starts, getting up every 2 to 3 hours to feed them. To the right me feeding little Sweet Pea Click here for Sweet pea and see how she’s grown.

Plan ahead

Its always handy to have a small tin of puppy milk and a puppy feeding kit before your bitch has had her litter , becouse you never no you might just have to feed them. I like to use SHERLEYS LACTOL milk . You can get it from your local pet shop I don’t like using welpi, its not as easy as using LACTOL. its so easy to use, just 7 scoops to a pint of warm water not hot hot. That’s for the pups & the mother as well. Just make up a pint and put it in the fridge until you need to feed the pups or the mother.( you can only keep it up to 24 hours ) then make a new lot. being down in Devon we’ve just found a place that dose teats to feed your pup with. Well they are for baby lambs really. but the teats are just the right size for your puppies mouth. They never seem to make the teats big enough for puppies. your find out when you’ve got to go to your local pet shop to buy a puppy feeding kit.

The Worming Process

After feeding the pups for a while your Bitch will look a bit like Skelotor. she will look ribby lose of weight

and tried. that’s when you know your bitch is in need of worming badly. but its a catch 22 cos you cant worm your bitch until she stops feeding the pups.

You cant give it to Lactating Bitches or Pregnant Bitches also. The pups are fine to worm at about three weeks old, and then again at 5 weeks and 7 to 8 weeks, just before they go to there new homes. that’s where we use Drontal Puppy wormier. You will get all that when you take your bitch and puppies down for a good check up by your local vet. you can also use Dronal for your bitch as well. its about £22.00 for a small 15-0 mg/ ml bottle. its every good stuff to use it comes with a syringe you just give the puppies one/ml then squirt it into there mouths job done. the same go’s for your bitch. unless the vet puts your bitch on worming tablets. Click here to go to Your dogs Heath.

A photo to the left of Dronal Plus we normally buy 30 tablets at a time. And here’s a little tip for when your bitch comes into season give her two tablets strait away just before you mate her that way you will have good strong healthily puppies.

Weaning the Puppy’s

At the age of three weeks old we normally put the pups on puppy food and goats milk ( photo to the right of puppy’s lapping up goats milk ) to start weaning the pups off the bitch.

Time to worm your bitch

we can now give the bitch her worming dose. After giving the bitch her worming dose keep the bitch away from the pups for at lest 48 hours, she wont like that being away from her puppies, but it has to be done.

Now the puppies are up and running about you are going to have a lot of mess to clean up. You really have got to keep Cleaning that Whelping Box. because not only is it going to be messy it can also cause germs.

Boy this where all the work starts ! lol

Keeping other dogs away Warning

if you’ve got any other dogs in the house KEEP them away from the Bitch with the puppies as your bitch will

get very Protective about her pups. If not you will have a full scale fight on your hands. Take this for instance our Motor went into where Ruby’s Puppies where. Ruby see her go in and that was it, it was a full on fight. it doesn’t matter what sort of dog it is. the Bitch will always Protect her pups, no matter if the bitch knows the dog or not. They can be the best of mates but when it comes down to her puppies there’s no

stopping her

.Motor came of worse and between the both of them the vet bill come to just under £400.00. a bill we could of done with out. Motor had to have a tub put into her chest to drain off Blood that was in here chest. it was so big I thought that she was going to pop that took two weeks to drain off in the end.

And here’s a another example of Bella & Ruby. This time it was Ruby going into Bella’s room because ruby wanted to eat Bella’s food and it was a full scale fight, and Bella getting bit in the back leg. That was my fault this time i didn’t lock the door behind me and the was the end result with a vet bill of £275.00.

Rewarding

It is very rewarding but if you are doing it for the money your doing it for the wrong reasons. I have only covered a very small proportion in what's involved in breeding. All our litters will be advertised on the pups for sale page. We will be up updating our site every two weeks and all the pictures of the offspring page will also be updated every two weeks.

Looking after Remember your going to be looking after these puppies and there mother for 6 to 8 weeks some times longer. Cleaning up after them feeding Milking watering them. Intermingling the puppies with the family. Basically getting used to your family and other dogs that you’ve got around your house. that’s a big job I know ive don’t it. Its is a full time job actually.

I could go on for ever about what to do and what not to do. but I think ive said quiet enough. If you got any specific questions do not hesitate to e-mail us here and I will try and answer all your questions A.S.A.P.

Make sure that you let your local vet know when your bitch is due & get a emergency phone number

The information provided on these pages is intended as a guide only. Should you have any cause for concern with your dog you must always seek professional advice from your veterinary surgeon