Gracie is being a terrific mom

Yes, Gracie is definitely a very caring and smart mother. She has been staying in the whelping area with her puppies almost all the time. No need (yet anyway) to worry about her abandoning her puppies. I'm very concerned about eclampsia. She had it last year and almost died. We caught it later than I would have liked to. This year I started out giving her calcium right away. However, she had diarrhea and I thought the calcium probably wasn't helping any, so I stopped giving it to her. Instead, I've been giving her all the raw meat and bones she wants. She loves chicken necks and lamb steak and riblets. Maybe I should start giving her calcium again. The second week seems to be the time when eclampsia usually hits. So far she's frisky and strong. Her babies are growing like weeds. Truly. The largest (Purple) is now one pound. Already!! Other than changing the bedding and weighing the puppies, there is nothing much for me to do except to keep Gracie happy. She's actually an amazing mother. One day Gracie was coming through the house to go outside and Punky met her half way. Gracie broadsided her so she couldn't get any closer to the pups. Quite a move by Gracie to stop a dog who is totally fixated on her babies on the computer monitor.