Whelping Boxes: A Safe Environment for Your Dog and Puppies

Having a breeding dog is beautiful and fulfilling for sure. However, it’s also a major commitment that requires great responsibility. Aside from giving it everything in terms of nutrition and love, you also need to create a safe environment for the mother and the puppies. And the best thing you can do is to pamper them with a good whelping box. This box is designed to keep puppies in one place, warm and cosy, while providing enough space for the mother as well. She needs to be able to move around and even stretch out, so that the puppies have enough space around her.

The choice of dog whelping boxes is huge, which is why you should take into account a few important things in order to find the most reliable and safe whelping box for your breeding dog and puppies.

This is one of the most commonly used types of box for dogs and for a reason. It’s super lightweight yet durable, easy to clean and non-porous. Even though it’s plastic, this material is high-quality and waterproof, allowing you to clean it with a hose and disinfect it whenever needed. Unlike wood and even cardboard, you can have peace of mind that a box of this material won’t absorb any odours. Being made of plastic also means this box isn’t prone to rusting, rotting, or splitting. All in all, this is one excellent choice you have, and one that’s also super easy to assemble and store when not needed, as everything comes off, and you can store it literally anywhere.

Steel is just another durable and high-quality material used for such boxes. They are super easy to clean and maintain, offering superior hygiene. They are chew-proof, which is great. Keep in mind that there will be a louder noise once puppies start doing that, especially when they start scratching the metal. Unfortunately, a box of this kind is significantly heavier than the PVC one. It’s more expensive and harder to assemble, which isn’t the case with PVC.

When compared to the others, the wooden boxes are bulkier and require more space, and are most commonly used for larger dogs due to their size. When compared to the others, the wooden box is the most affordable choice for sure, and the warmest wood is porous, especially the unsealed one, which is a breeding ground for bacteria and viruses. Wood is also more difficult to sanitise, especially when used for such purposes, as medical-grade disinfectants cannot thoroughly penetrate porous wood fibres. Wood is also prone to trapping odours that cannot be washed out, unfortunately. So yeah, no matter how beautiful, warm and cosy they seem, they certainly aren’t the best option for breeding dogs.

This is certainly the most affordable option available on the market. It’s disposable, meaning that you can throw it away immediately after the litter grows up. However, the material itself offers no moisture resistance, making it unhygienic. In fact, the liquid, whether it is urine, blood or something else, immediately gets soaked up by the cardboard, which leads to tearing and exposing urine, water spills and fluids from birth going all over the place.

Aside from the material, you should also take into account the box’s size, as this is closely related to comfort. The first thing you should consider is the size of your dog, and choose a box that’s at least 1.5 times the length of its size when lying down. In fact, this is the best way to choose the right box size, as this will make sure enough room for your dog to comfortably nurse and care for its puppies.

Another thing to consider when choosing such a box is the space it takes. The area in which it’ll be placed should be spacious enough to accommodate the box with the dog and its puppies. That is why you should choose a space that’s spacious enough to accommodate them. Otherwise, you risk investing in a smaller box or placing the larger one in your home or garage. The choice is up to you and your needs, so make sure to choose wisely by taking everything into account.

Generally speaking, puppies need to stay in the box for 3-4 weeks before transitioning to a larger playpen area. Luckily, nowadays, you can invest in a box with a larger playpen area, or choose a regular box and then buy additional extension panels, which can serve as a playpen area. It’s really up to you which type of box you’ll choose. The most important thing is to choose a spacious and quality model that’s easy to clean and maintain.