Why do you need an incubator?

If you are a breeder, you have probably found yourself in a situation with a puppy in distress, a lethargic puppy, or worst case scenario mom does not make it through birth or mom just doesn’t care about  puppies at all, now what do you do?

The number one killer of puppies is COLD. Newborn puppies need warmth more than food, they cannot regulate their body temperature for the first week, this is why they have to have a constant source of heath at all times. Without external heat, it doesn’t take long for a puppy to become chilled. A cold puppy will become lethargic within an hour or two and die.

You can warm up bottles of water, rice bags, towels to try keep them warm, sure, but the best and easy way for you and puppies will be an incubator, where you can leave puppy overnight and know it will keep the exact same temperature, without overheating.

At birth the puppy’s body temperature is the same as the mother’s, after delivery the puppy temperature will drop several degrees, the body (rectal) temperature should fall between 95° and 99°F. If it drops below 94°F, your puppy could be facing life-threatening hypothermia. Puppies depend on their mom to maintain their body temperature 100% of the time during its first 2 weeks of life. Chilling gravely reduces the puppy’s metabolism. Newborn puppies can’t generate their own body heat until they develop the shiver reflex at around two and half weeks. Hypothermia is the single greatest problem for infant puppies. It is very important to keep puppies warm for the first two weeks of age.

Distressed Puppies

Despite our instinct to want to immediately feed a puppy in trouble, warmth is far more critical than food. Cold puppies can’t nurse or digest food. Their heart rates drop, and the circulatory and respiratory systems collapse. They won’t last long under these conditions. Warming a chilled puppy too quickly can also be fatal. Puppies that have a low body temperature should be warmed slowly over a few hours to a normal temperature of about 97°F. A normal body temperature should be reached before feeding these puppies.

When you’re ready to set up the nest, place clean towels or puppy pads in the Incubator. If the puppies are open-mouth panting, the box is too warm. Your litter can help you gauge their comfort level easier than just one puppy can. Chilled puppies will cry and gather in a pile trying to keep each other warm. Puppies that are too warm will separate and sleep apart.

Dangers

Manufacturers of heating pads made for people do not recommend them being used on animals. Even on the low setting temperatures can get dangerously hot. Most heating pads made for people will shut themselves off after a certain time.

Pet heating pads can be just as dangerous, over the years we have heard horrific stories of puppies being “cooked” to death on this pads.

Heat lamps will warm them up, but can also dehydrate the puppies as well as being hard to regulate their temperature, if not used with the properly equipment such as a temperature control. Puppies can easily become overheated with no way to escape using these methods to warm the puppies.

Temperature

Within twenty-four hours being born, there core (rectal) temperature should be 95° to 97°F Their temperature steadily increases, until at 3 weeks of age the rectal temperature is 98° to 100°F Eventually they’ll sustain a normal temperature of 101.5°F.

During the first week of life, puppies do not have the capacity to constrict the blood vessels at the surface of their skin to retain heat. A newborn is able to maintain a body temperature 10°F to 12°F above his immediate surroundings for only short periods. When the heat source, (the mother, other puppies, blankets and Incubator), is removed for 30 minutes or so in a 72°F room the puppies core temperature can quickly falls to 94°F or below where the puppy faces life-threatening hypothermia.

The air temperature in the Incubator should be kept at 85° to 90°F for the first week. The second week, reduce the gradually to 80°F. Then reduce the temperature gradually so that it’s about 70°F when the litter is 4 weeks old.

Humidity of 55-65% is recommended

Please use common sense. If the puppies are piled on top of each other all the time, they are cold. If the puppies are spread far apart and panting, they are too warm. If they lay next to each other, the temperature is fine.

Our incubators come with a heat lamp, an exhaust fan and a temperature control unit. This las one will work with both the heat lamp and fan to keep the desire temperature at all times.

We also, added a humidifier, since a humidifier adds moisture in the air, it can help your puppies nasal passages, restore their skin, rid of their cold symptoms, and allow them to breath normally. But the most important reason we add a humidifier, is to kill bacteria and viruses. Bacteria and viruses spread rapidly in dry air, so a humidifier can help you combat them.

We add nebulizer ports to make it easy for you to give breathing treatments to your puppies. Nebulization can be used to deliver a variety of medications to the lungs, in cases of infection, or lung diseases such as pneumonia, asthma, kennel cough, bronchitis and so on. Respiratory therapy is often recommended by veterinarians for puppies that have an infection (bacterial or fungal) in the lungs or upper airway or to loosen phlegm that accumulates due to chronic inflammation of the respiratory tract.

Hypoxia is oxygen depravation or low blood oxygen, it can be managed by putting the puppy in an oxygen chamber. An oxygen tank or oxygen concentrator will improve oxygenation of the pup’s blood, by attaching the oxygen concentrator to the incubator, you will improve the chances of pup’s survival until they are breathing strong enough to survive on room air.