…Today, I have twelve.  Click on the pics below for hi-res versions.

Contessa and her 10 puppies

Contessa gave birth to 10 little Cane Corsos today.  8 Male, 2 female.

They’re adorable.

We call this one "Light Green"

We “named” them based on the color of bands we put around their necks.

One of the runts, "Dark Blue"

Most of the puppies weighed in at between 450-480 grams, but we have two runts: Dark Blue male is 413 grams and Pink female is 400 grams.  Pink didn’t seem to want to suckle either at Contessa or at a bottle for the first couple of hours, but at about 2 o;clock, she found a nipple and went to town.  We were afraid we might lose her at first.

One of the male puppies, Lavender, weighed in at 550 grams.  I like him a lot.  He may be the one we keep, depending on how he does on temperament testing.

It was a long day, but at the moment, mother and puppies are sound alseep.

Contessa was a real trooper.  She handled all ten puppies as they were born, and needed no real assistance from us for any of them.  Considering that this was her first litter, and a very large one, she handled it like a pro, though she’s completely exhausted right now.