If your dog is pregnant or has recently given birth, you probably have questions about her care and that of the newborns. All the doubts you have should be asked to your trusted veterinarian, who will answer you appropriately and help you. However, you can also expand your knowledge about the care of a pregnant dog, as well as the care of newborn puppies.
Some common questions are when do they open their eyes, when can they see well, or when do they start to walk. Focusing on their vision, did you know that puppies are born with their eyes totally closed because they have to finish forming? Puppies’ eyes open slowly, starting at about 12 days of age and the entire process takes place between 12 days and 18 days of age. If you wonder when do newborn dogs open their eyes, keep reading a HOW TO and we explain it well to you, along with many more details necessary to take care of your new furry companions.
When puppies first open their eyes
Newborn dogs have their eyes totally closed and they can’t open them, so they haven’t developed vision yet. This happens because they have yet to finish forming the iris and the third eyelid or nictitating membrane. It is for this reason, among others, that in their first months it is vital that they are with the mother and in a well-sheltered place, as they are really vulnerable. Thus, for this reason, it is vital that you ensure a good place for the dog to be calm and all are well protected, as well as that you feed the mother well. We recommend you read this other oneHOWTO article in which we explain how to feed your dog after giving birth. In addition, it is also necessary that you ensure that both the puppies and the bitch are all in perfect health.
Until the cubs open their eyes, they are guided by other senses to find their mother, their mothers for feeding, and their siblings. They do it with smell and touch, since they cannot be guided by sight but neither by hearing, since they are also born deaf and it is not until they are two weeks old that they begin to hear.
About when do newborn dogs open their eyes Exactly, as we have indicated before, the general is that they open their eyes little by little around day 12 of life and that they open them completely and begin to see something between day 12 and day 18 of life, that is, between a week and a half of life and two weeks and a little.
What to do if my puppies do not open their eyes
If you see that the 12th or 13th day arrives and your puppies have not opened their eyes, do not be alarmed. As we said, until the 18th is totally normal.
If from the 18th they do not begin to open even a little, you can comment on it with the vet in case you detect any symptoms that indicate a problem. But, apart, it is convenient that, unless the veterinarian indicates otherwise, with the help of sterile gauze and physiological saline to moisten them massage your eyes a little. Do not use force or pull on the skin, just pass the soaked gauze from the tear duct to the outside carefully, in this way you will stimulate the area, and use a new gauze for each eye and every time you do it. If with this in a couple of days at the most they have not started to open them, or one of the puppies has not succeeded, it is now safe time for you to consult the vet.
When do newborn dogs start to see well?
Now you know when puppy dogs open their eyes, but When do they start to see the puppies? The truth is that when they start to open their eyes they still do not see really well, they still need several days to continue forming vision, as happens with other senses and with some organs.
Thus, the puppies during the first days after opening their eyes begin to differentiate lights and shadows, but it is not until 1 month and a half of life or at 45 days of age they begin to have good vision. Normally, they continue to develop it until 3 months or 12 weeks of life, when they already have complete vision.
How is the vision of dogs
As we have said, dog puppies have the well-developed vision at 12 weeks of age. But, how do dogs see exactly? A lot has been said about canine vision. For example, you have surely heard that dogs see in black and white and this is totally false.
To answer how dogs see, we will first say that they do see colors, but that they see less of them and perceive them differently than we do. Dogs, due to the cells they have in the retina of the eye, are only sensitive to two colors: yellow and blue. This type of vision that dogs have, in which the sensitivity is higher in front of two colors, is called dichromatic vision. That is why dogs are not able to differentiate red from green. Another interesting fact is that on average dogs can see well up to 6 meters away.
In addition, another relevant characteristic of their vision is that they have the so-called tapetum lucidum, like all mammals that are nocturnal or are part of their life at night like cats, which is a thick and reflective tissue of light. This is what gives them the ability to see well at night, that is, they have night vision capacity and with only some moonlight or some street lighting they see better than us by far.
How to care for a newborn dog
To finish, we want to give you a series of tips on how to care for a newborn dog, both in food and hygiene and other vital aspects for its proper development. Take note of the tips you’ll find in these other related OneHOWTO articles:
And in a few weeks later, you can start walking him, socialize him with more dogs apart from his brothers and parents and with other animals and people. To do it correctly, we recommend these other articles:
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