Decisions, decisions. We have decided tomorrow to put the Ella and Saffron pups upstairs without moms and the Cinnamon pups downstairs without mom. We mulled it over and figured we would merge them as they get older during the night.
Why did we make this decision? I watched the play carefully the last 2 days as I always do before they head upstairs and I noticed that the Cinnamon pups would lay on top of the little ones not to do harm but they would make noise to get out from underneath and the Cinnamons would just lay there on top not moving. It wasn't meant to hurt the smaller ones in any way. It was more of a way to snuggle as they do with their littermates. During the day, if they do this, I can just lift a pup off and eventually they will get it is not welcomed to be squished.
Then, you will notice in today's video a Cinnamon pup being persistent in play that was too rough for the Saffron pup. Every now and then this happens and the smaller always play catchup with the larger when they get to a certain size. They are not there yet. We will continue to have them together during the day but at night we will try this setup till the smaller get larger.
Cinnamon's will most likely be Stone's size in adulthood where Saffron and Ella's pups will be like their mom's size or larger. Ella and Saffron also has a slower growth curve. They grow slow and consistent and Cinnamon's grows fast and stop earlier. We did videos today showing the play between a Saffron and Cinnamon pup. This sort of play I stop not because the larger has intentions on hurting but they are at a stage where they do not understand that its not fair play with these pups but it is with their siblings. They do not get the size difference. This will be good for the Cinnamon pups as they will learn to dumb down their play when they encounter a smaller pup to play with. With their siblings, size is similar.
They are not there yet but I imagine they will be in the 7 week range.
As I just was typing this, a Saffron and Cinnamon pup was playing really well together. That happens too.