Just had a litter of nine today. Yahoo! But I'm very concerned about the extremely low birth weight of the pups. They range from 5 oz to 9 oz. Several in between. They were born day 64 from first tie. Tied 3 times over 5 days. All pups are nursing and seem normal, just small, and of course I am watching them like a hawk. Mom seems to be doing her job. Milk appears to be coming in and I will be weighing them regularly....She was fed Kirkland L&R throughout pregnancy. Thoughts, advice and getting these babies through the next few days?

TIA

I've had two small litters out of the same girl, who herself is on the small side of the standard but still within. We're talking a total of 6 puppies, in both litters the puppies were small, ranging anywhere from 6.5 oz to about 11oz. These are conformation bred out of substantial but not huge males.

In the first litter, I now have a boy at 2.5 yrs that is in working weight at 75 lbs and still maturing. He's been training and working on his SH everyday since March and he's muscled up like a line backer. come winter I'd expect that he'll gain a few pounds and hit 80.

I'm told his sister runs about 50lbs in working weight and just barely hits the height standard. The other girl in that litter is within the standard all around. These three were probably about 8-11 oz at birth with that boy right in the middle.

In the second litter, they ranged from the little girl at 6.5oz to 2 boys who were about 9 oz and 11 oz. The 9 oz boy quickly caught up to the 11 oz boy.
At 13 weeks, they're both about 25lbs and the little sister is 23 lbs. My breeder vet seemed to think they were right on target for their age.

Maybe because they were small litters they've all thrived but in the boy's cases at least I'm not concerned that their birth weight will be an indication of adult size. Perhaps the girls that this female throws will favor their mother and tend toward the low end of the standard or below. Time will tell on the 6.5oz girl.

With 9 pups, I'd probably tend toward supplementing to be sure they get a good start but I think with good nutrition you'll be fine but I'd be mindful of the sizes in your bloodlines as well.

Be sure to keep them warm. If mom has good milk, they should be fine.

I would weigh them twice a day to make sure they are gaining.......make sure to put the smaller pups on Mom as often as you can....watch to see that they are nursing and pull the bigger ones off. If you haven't increased the Mom's food....do it immediately. When I have had litters of 10 or 11..... I offer my girl some canned food in between her regular puppy kibble. Keep a water bucket hanging on side of whelping box so she can drink without leaving the pups.....she needs to keep well hydrated to keep up her milk supply. I think your pups will be fine....just keep them warm and keep a close eye on them for the next week.

Thanks everyone for your tips and advice.It's been nearly 24 hours and everyone has put on weight. Urine color is good (per "Puppy Intensive Care" by Myra Savant-Harris), reflexes as well. I'm just starting to feel hopeful they can make it after hearing some of your experiences with tiny ones.

I lost my last litter of 2 seemingly healthy vigerous pups, fading and dying on day 2 a few months ago (different dam and sire), so I am a probably letting that memory make me feel less than optimistic.

Thanks again!

Last year I had a litter of 13 (ten living) and they were all very small and in the 6-9 oz range. All survived with no problems and I have two girls here that I kept back from that litter and they are as big or bigger than the rest of the crew. I started feeding them at 3 weeks to give them an extra boost and as long as they are gaining, they should be fine.

I had a litter of 12 several years ago by C-section (RLD's girl was in that litter). Several pups were very small at birth, and Mom didn't have a lot of milk at first. I weighed them two or three times a day, and anyone who wasn't gaining weight was tube fed with Esbilac. Tube feeding is actually easy and safe as long as you mark the tubing to be sure that it is in too far to be going into the lungs. My puppies learned to swallow the tube after a few feedings. Just keep feeding it in as they swallow. With nine it may not be so critical, but I would still keep weighing them several times a day. If two weighings go by without a weight gain, I would tube feed. Of course the milk substitute needs to be warmed to body temperature. That is actually the most time consuming part of tube feeding. I also took every opportunity to make sure the littlest ones got to nurse.