I am planning my first breeding this Summer.
What kind of whelping boxes do all of you prefer?
Where do you buy them?
I will probably only be doing maybe one litter a year.
I mention that only because I am not sure how much to invest.
I have seen both bought and home made at friends homes.
If you could tell me what you like and do not like about the various ones like Durawhelp, Jonart(sp?) etc. I would appreciate it. Thanks for the help.

My brother made mine with 4' melamine board, 12" tall. It is 4' x 4' and has 3" PVC pipe halfway up the board to act as pigrails. I love it and it is very easy to clean. Cost about $50 to make.

Hi! Depending on how handy you are (or how rich you are) you can build or buy a whelping box. I highly recommend pig rails.

If you google whelping box plans, you'll find all kinds of stuff. My homemade box was made mostly with 2x4s, without plans, by a handy friend of my husband's, and has been terrific. They painted it white with two coats of shellac I believe. Easy to clean. There is no floor - I put a linoleum remnant on the floor, then newspaper or chux pads, then a big sheet of rubber backed fleece, then I put the whelping box on top. It's smaller than the fleece, so the weight of it keeps the fleece in place even when Mom digs.

Each side of the box is held to the others with screws and wing bolts, and when it is time to put it away, the four sections take up a lot less space. There are removeable sides also, but the two things I like best are the open floor, and the way it breaks down for storage.

http://www.cosykennel.co.uk/whelping.htm
If your rich enough these are fantastic......
I have 2 bought 5 years ago. Love them.

I have been using kiddy wadding pools for 35 years. Love them.

The sides give if the bitch lays against them, so they tend to stay away from the sides. So no need for pig rails.

They are super easy to clean, light weight and no need to store them. You can also cut an opening for a door.

When the litter is done with the pool, it goes out in the dog yard and I put water in it for the dogs. If I cut a door for the puppies, I do not cut it all the way to the floor. This way I can fill the pool with water up to the cut mark and the puppies love to play in the water.

JanG

Thanks for the information.
I would love to make my own but I am not a very good carpenter. I may end up buying one if it is not too expensive.
To the person who supplied the cosy kennel link-
I noticed it is a UK site.
When I logged on I could not bring up either a price list or an American Dist.
Can you help with that?
Also, what size did you get?
Thanks!

They look great but how did you get them in the US? Website says UK only????

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Replying to:

http://www.cosykennel.co.uk/whelping.htm
If your rich enough these are fantastic......
I have 2 bought 5 years ago. Love them.

I just looked up my paperwork and we bought them in 2004. I emailed them at first and a fellow named Harry Harper responded. (I believe we did talk by tele at one point.) They did shipped to US at that time. I did have to get a custom broker. That company was D.T. Gruelle Company out of Coraopolis PA.I cant say enough about the boxes. Easy to clean and break all down for storage and will last a breeders life time.

We got the 48x36.

But we didnt care for their pig rails. We just use a Precision Snoozy, (that you put in crates) which has soft padded sides.

I've used the Durawhelp for years. Still have the same one, although I don't breed often so it's probably only seen about a half dozen litters. Last year I had two litters at the same time for my very first time. I have heard many breeders who use the plastic wading pools, so since one of my bitches were experienced I decided to try this for the second litter. My first time bitch whelped in the durawhelp and was a terrific mom and the other bitch whelped in the pool. She's also a great mom. I used low pile carpet remenants to cover the bottom of the pool just as I used in the other box. Sadly my experienced mom developed severe mastitis and had to spend time at the ER and at my regular vet, but my first time mom didn't seem to mind going in and taking care of the younger litter of 10 pups as well as her own pups! Aren't Labs great?

After my other bitch recovered, she took over the care of her pups again and everything turned out just fine. The pool worked just fine and am I thinking of just buying another one instead of setting up the durawhelp. The pups love it later on when you fill it with water too!

Good luck with your first litter!

Dianne

We built a 4' x 6' whelping box, lined with melamine. Drop down door, custom made aluminum potty tray, the whole nine yards. Then we had a whoops litter and a planned litter one week apart. I got the baby swimming pool and I'll never go back. The pools are great.

I thought we were going to have 2 litters at the same time so I bought a second Durawhelp 2 years ago--we had a miss. I bought the x-large size and now am sorry--thinking I should have just got another 4X4. We never even took it out of the box. Does anyone use this bigger size for Labs? How does it work out? It's 4X6. I'm thinking it would be just too big.

I love the larger one when the pups are 4-7 wks.. Big enough to put a small crate in there. They love it

We use the 4x4 Durawhelp for litters of 7 or less. 8 or more we use the 4x6. When we had 16 the 4x6 almost wasn't big enough!

Hubby and I made ours in an afternoon's time. We bought 1 1/2" X 30" PVC Pig Panels from the local farm store, and it is 48" X 60" x30" tall. The cost was about $350.00 incoduing 4" pvc (that we bought at True Value) for pigrails. If you would like to see pics of it e-mail me. We just whelped our first litter Sunday and it is fantastic.

I use the 4 x 4 durawhelp but a friend of mine uses the 4 x 5. She loves it. She swears by the bigger one. I know she has been thinking about buying another one just to have as an extra since hers is beginning to wear out. The boxes are fine until little teeth begin chewing then you need to move them into something else. My husband built me a 4 x 8 puppy playpen that I use when pups begin chewing on the durawhelp.