What do you use to heat your whelping box?

[KingstonTodd]

What do you use to heat your whelping box? Snugglesafe? water bottle? heat lamp? nothing?

[MaxandMe]

My breeder has a towel in hers and uses a space heater in the area for cold winter temps for section of her house.

[mtd885]

In the old days I used an electric blanket

[Jac]

Since our pups are whelped indoors, we put an extra space heater in the whelping room and keep the temp higher. I also use new socks filled with rice and placed in the microwave for a minute or two...they get warm and I cover them with towells or blankets and put them in a basket...when mama needs to go outside I place the pups in the basket with the warm sock for them to snuggle with.
Mama isn't crazy about the heat, but she is okay with it and the heat can gradually be reduced, still keeping it cozy, as pups get older. That first week, the pups are kept pretty warm.
Be prepared to use hot water bottles (with hot water from a fireplace or B-B-Q in case you lose power!
I don't like the heat lamps, they get too hot and can burn the mother if she gets too close...and I don't like the kennel pads that heat up because my pups just potty on it and sleep off of it!
I find that the socks work well for cuddling.

[Tink]

I so far have avoided having winter litters, so haven't had to deal with this. When I had pups during cool weather, they've been in the house.

We are however in the process of planning 2 whelping areas that will be heated and will have some new type of heat lamps hubby found in a farm/home store. They're rectangular so throw off a much larger heat area, come in a case that keeps them much cooler to the touch, and can be built into a low ceiling over the whelping area so that there's nothing for the dam to bump or knock around. We are also checking into running heat pipes in the concrete floor to heat from below. The area would of course be built specifically for whelping, so could be "fixed" rather than transportable.

We're planning on converting what many years ago used to be a laundry building (between 2 mobile homes) just outside our house. It has water, sewer, elect and natural gas, so with some work should make a good spot for puppies. It will have outdoor runs attached to it, and should make life much easier for me and better for the dogs.

We bought a very small retirement home, so simply don't have room to have litters IN the house full time. I have only one small (8 x 10) room that I can dedicate to that, so when I have 2 overlapping litters it wouldn't be enough space. Since I am working on a limited budget, I've been accumulating supplies gradually and hope to get this done in spring.

[M&Tdoodles]

WE HAVE A GAS HEATER IN THE WALL..SORT OF LOOKS LIKE A FIREPLACE...WE BUILD THE WHELPING BOX UNDER IT , AND HAVE A THERMOMETER ON THE WAL NEAR SO WE CAN ALWAYS MONITOR THE TEMP OF THE ROOM. IF THE WEATHER IS CLOSE TO ZERO OUTSIDE WE ENCLOSE THIS AREA WITH CURTAINS MADE OUT OF PLASTIC DRAPES (TARPS), TO KEEP THE AREA WE ARE HEATING SMALLER. IT HAS WORKED WELL FOR 2 WINTER LITTERS SO FAR.
JAC I LIKE THE RICE IN THE SOCK IDEA....WE USE A SMALL ELCTRIC HEATING PAD TO KEEP THEM WARM AND COZY IN THE LAUNDRY BASKET WHEN MOM IS TAKING A PEE BREAK OUTSIDE.

[KingstonTodd]

We decided on a space heater, and hanging a blanket in the doorway to keep the heat in, since the doorway doesnt have a door, and its an old house so we would have to get one custom door made to fit the fun-house angles. It seems to be working well, the heater has a digital temp control and Hershey can come in and out as she pleases through the blanket. thanks for all the advice.

[Lucky Me]

Tuesday had her litter in my bedroom, in a large swimming pool & was moved to the spare bedroom within a few days.
In her pool was 2 layers of egg crate, covered with a waterproofmattress cover, then a folded woven cotton blanket & last a large flannel sheet over the whole mess. I removed the blanket and sheet to launder almost daily after a few days & the waterproof cover as needed. On one end I had a hot pad under a folded towel. The cord was covered by the sheet. The puppies would wander over to the pad as needed. The room was heated too but they can't regulate their temp well the first week so I wanted all bases covered.
After 2 weeks they started hopping out of the pool so they were moved to a corner in a larger bathroom on tile that could be bleached.