I have a two week old puppy who weighs 1 lb 2.2 oz. This puppy was 10.6 oz at birth. He does not have a cleft palette and is feeding from a bottle. He consumes 1-2 oz. per feeding but is not gaining weight. His pigment is coming in and along with a thick coat. He tries to nurse but has not been successful so far.
The puppy is active, strong and appears content. The littermates are over 4 pounds.
I would appreciate any help/suggestions from my fellow labrador owners who have experienced a similar puppy.
Thank you, Elaine Dal Bon

How many feedings a day are you giving him? How many hours apart? Are you feeding through the night still?

Just doing some figuring out of curiosity. If a puppy was 16 oz. at birth, and figuring body weight doubled at 7 days old, that would put him at 2 lbs. at one week old.
With a litter of 8 or 10, I would guess a 1.5 oz to 2 oz weight gain per puppy/per day would be average, so in theory I might expect at 14 days old I might have puppies pushing 3 lbs. Yours are over 4 lbs though at 14 days old??
Could the others have been pushing this smallest puppy out of the way?

I'm curios now and will check my records when I get home. Had a recent litter of 2 which of course didn't lack for anything to eat. Will see what they weighed at 2 weeks.

We had a pup like that once, she had the greatest personality! Anyway she also had kidney failure. She was active and developed like the rest just so much smaller. I would recommend taking her in for some blood work, they can tell alot about what is going on just with that.

Good luck!

We had a pup like that. She was the largest at birth, but had issues nursing and we had to supplement her nursing & bottle feed her. The others quickly surpassed her. The vet had us start her on gruel at 2 weeks along with the bottle feeding. She was always half the weight of the others as a young pup. As an adult (age 2) she is a beautiful 65 pound girl.

Dear, if this puppy is healthy with no apparent issues then you need to start to feeding him more than 1 or 2 ounces per feeding. That is just not nearly enough and that is why he is not gaining weight. This puppy is now 2 wks? you will need to start to increase the amount of liquid slowly. Start to feed him 5 ounces every three hours. After doing this four or five times increase to 7 or 8 ounces every three hours or four hours. Do this again three times then increase amount to 10 to 11 ounces. Then increase again a few ounces..

I am sure your puppy is probably very hungry. Increase his food and you will see him gain weight very quickly. Start gruel at three weeks or a day or so earlier than that.

Good luck, keep us posted.

Just checked my records on weight gain for litter of 2.
One 16 oz at birth, the other 14 oz. At one week, they were 34 oz & 36 oz.

At 3 days shy of 2 weeks old, both were 3 lbs 1 oz.
At 2 weeks old, they were 4 lbs 1 oz & the other 4 lbs.

As far as supplementing, if you use Esbilac, read the instructions on the can.
If the pup is getting some mothers milk, the can feeding instructions may have to be adapted... call their customer service phone number. They are very helpful in helping you figure out how much to supplement and how often.

Eight ounces liquid (1 cup) seems like alot per feeding. We tube fed a litter 2 years ago. Didn't pull my records out, but I'm pretty sure we weren't feeding that much per feeding. We fed every 4 hours.

Have you tried repeatedly to get him on the teat? I don't understand why he can nurse from a bottle but not from mom, unless like someone posted, he is being pushed out of the way repeatedly and just gives up.
Nursing from mom would be the best way for him to gain weight, as the formulas are a mediocre substitute for bitch's milk.
Have you tried getting his mouth around a teat and gently holding him while you or someone else squeezes mom's teat to get some bitch's milk into him? Sometimes that will "prime the pump" for some of these slow learners. Don't do this right after a bottle feeding, wait till he is hungry and pull the others aside so he has time and room to learn.
Good luck, and I would want to get some more nutrition (calories) into him if he is that underweight compared to the rest.

I put a little corn syrup in warm water and dip my baby finger in it and then into pups mouth. Pup will suck it, I do this about 5 or 6 times in a row, to give pup some instant energy and get the sucking reflex going. Then at that precise moment, when energy is up and sucking is good, (and all the other pups are aside) I get the pup onto moms teat. If I have to, I gently pry pups mouth open at the jaws, and when the mouth is wide open, I place the mouth around the nipple, so when he closes his mouth, it's on the nipple. I'll hold the pup up and on whatever angle necessary to allow him to stay latched. Do this several times per day and hopefully he'll catch on. Make sure he's kept warm, too. Good luck.