CARE OF THE NEW-BORN. 267 



sums, but very rarely indeed within a day or even a week ; 

 therefore they should be sought for early ; and the course 

 that suggests itself as the easiest and surest is to adver- 

 tise the want in the kennel papers at least a month before 

 the bitches they are to assist are expected to whelp. 



Quality need not enter into the considerations in choos- 

 ing a foster mother, for a mongrel will do as well as a 

 pure breed, and perhaps better. Nor is the question of 

 size a very important one, notwithstanding some breeders 

 insist that the two mothers should be of about the same 

 size ; and while it is better, of course, that they be nearly 

 so, or the foster the larger, a difference in the other direc- 

 tion need not weigh heavily unless very great. 



But it is of the highest importance that the foster 

 mother be in good health, and imperatively necessary is it 

 that she be not only absolutely free from mange and other 

 contagious affections but that there exist not the slightest 

 danger of her being the carrier of disease. For instance, 

 did she belong to a kennel in which there were or had 

 recently been cases of distemper, although she herself 

 might be perfectly safe from the disease she would yet be 

 ineligible, since she would likely transmit the germs in 

 her coat. 



With due regard to possible irregularities in the duration 

 of gestation, it is advisable that the foster mother be due 

 to whelp about a day earlier than the bitch whose duties 

 she may be called upon to assume. Yet nice adjustments 

 need not be attempted, for milk three or four days older 

 than that of the adopted is generally well borne, and, in 

 fact, instances are not infrequent where puppies in the 

 first or second days of life do well on milk from a week 

 to ten days old. 



As for puppies that are in the last part of the first 

 week, milk even three or four weeks old is often kindly 



