Hi y´all,

I work with pups and, as to increase the chance of pregnancy, breed the animals for one week at a time.

That leaves me with a pretty broad time frame with regard to when pups might be thrown. So I tend to check for pups in the evenings and mornings several days in a row around the time I´d expect them to be born.

I feel like that stresses the animals though and disrupting their nest (I´ve had litters in which half the animals were eaten) or something about my scent may have a negative effect.

I try to be as gentle as possible but for me to see if there are pups, I have to remove part of the bedding and move it back.

Can any of you recommend anything that might help with reducing the amount of stress on the females?

I´ll have to perform toe clipping on the pups, too and that may be even more difficult without half the litters being eaten or left to die.

I´ve thoguh of coating my hands in either powdered food mixed with water or urine drenched bedding but I am open to anything else!

Thank you so much in advance!