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The Whelping Box
and Weaning Pen
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I ordered a whelping box and weaning pen from Jonart
http://www.thewhelpingbox.com/
out of Milford Minnesota. Maggie was born in Minnesota and she
highly recommends anything that has any thing to do with her, no matter
how remote.
The order arrived in two boxes in good order.
Shipping and handling was $170 to bring it to my door in Massachusetts.
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Since, in the winter, our nursery moves to the cellar to
give the new mom and pups some privacy from the other members of the pack,
we were concerned about the cold concrete floor.
One of the features that we liked about Jonart was the
(blue) insulation which goes on the bottom of the floor panels.
Here, a floor panel is shown upside down to expose the insulation
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Assembly was actually quite easy requiring only long
carriage bolts and black twist knobs that hold it together. I'm sure
it didn't take more than 15 minutes or so to bring assembly to this level.
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The baby bumpers or what Jonart refers to as pig rails
are also easy to assemble. Four long pieces each with collars on the
bottom into which you press pre-cut legs. |
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Then, the bumper assembly simply is dropped carefully
into place.
I suggest you do this carefully with 2 people if
convenient. This is because if you lower the back side (in this pic)
first and then lower the front side, there is a risk that the legs will
catch on the frame and could potentially break. |
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With the bumpers removed, it's easy to see the full size
of the door, the long carriage bolts, and a lightweight non-scuffing
mallet (not a hammer) that I used to persuade the bolts to go through the
holes in the wall panels. If you choose this approach, tap lightly.
Although the unit seems pretty solid, PVC can be broken. |
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I like the doors. They give you a lot of
flexibility with 4 different sizes simply by putting in no doors (fully
open as shown above), either the low or the higher door, and finally, both
doors.
This may seem more than you need, but I'm hear to tell
you that Newfies grow VERY fast and you'll want to increase the height of
this door from week to week. |
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So, we're all set to go.
Looks like there is plenty of room here now. But
you have to consider that Newfies commonly hit double digit litter sizes,
particularly after the first litter which tends to be smaller. |
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So let the mommy wannabe poke around in the whelping pen.
Cheryl needed to know that there would be room for mommy, her, and the
pups to all pig pile together.
The heat lamp is set up, but I'm thinking it may be a
little close to the wall panel. I also won't want it right in the
door way. Consider this pic a bit contrived. We'll have to
consider heat lamp placement carefully when we actually launch.
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