Whelp, whelp, whelp

I get a lot of questions from new breeders about whelping boxes, so I decided to make a quick post.

We have tried all but the most expensive options on the market (some of them run over a thousand dollars and we just can’t afford that): home made boxes, durawhelp, pools, costo garden boxes.

We’ve stuck with the durawhelp.

My order of preference and reasons:

1. Durawhelp. Pros: Light, easily sanitizable, has attached floors, good pigrail, modular (can add weaning pen). Cons: Can be a little floppy and can’t sit on corners or edges.

2. Home made boxes. Pros: can make whatever you want, can make it to sit on corners and edges. Cons: Heavy, heavy, heavy, need to paint with sanitizable scrubbable paint, so that can mean oil paint.

3. Pools. Pros: Light, relatively sanitizable. Cons: harder to make pig rails, harder to find mats, looks unprofessional no matter what you do to them, low sides so puppies can get out sooner

4. Costco garden boxes. Pros: they look nice, can be a little modular, depending on the brand, lightweight. Cons: really hard to sanitize (so many cracks goo can get into), no floor, so it slides around and is hard to change mats in, expensive (I need two to equal my 1 durawhelp, and 4 to equal 1 durawhelp with a weaning pen).

I really hated the costco boxes. I don’t find them easy to use and hate having to clean them (have to completely disassemble each slat to truly sanitize) and change pads. I’ll use any of the other three again, but only use my costco box when I need that particular size and hope to replace it soon. I’m considering trying a home made box again. I’m investigating some lighter weight materials and will post if I manage a good design.