I have a litter ( 3 puppies) that are two weeks old, They are quite small compared to other litters I have had. At 2 weeks old they haven't even hit the 2 pound mark yet. With only 3 in the litter they should be bigger. Mom has plenty of milk and they are not interested in me feeding them on a bottle, they have been wormed etc, they are just now opening their eyes and are getting up on all fours to move around. Has any one has a small ( weight wise) litter that do go on to be normal sized adults. I have had very small puppies in a large litter that continue on to be completely normal and at 8 weeks there is very little between them and their litter mates. but these should be heavier I think, and their daily weight gain is not as great as I would expect. What can I do to increase their weight gains when they are not interested in me supplementing them. Very frustrating. Thanks amore any thoughts.

I have a girl who, while within the standard, is smallish and has produce small litters of only 2-3 puppies. At birth her pups tend to weigh about 8-10 oz. By 3 or 4 weeks old I expect them to be at about their birth weight plus a pound a week with the gain excelerating as they get older.

Out of those puppies I have a son that at 3.5 years old is almost 80lbs after heavy field training. His 1.5 year old younger half sister is at about 75lbs give or take. I only know of one pup out of all of this girl's get that is undersized as an adult.

Your litter sounds consistent with what I've experianced out of my girl. I do get them onto puppy mash between 3&4 weeks and allow mom to nurse as long and often as she wants after they've transitioned to the mash. The other night she was very content to allow two 7 week olds to nurse.

Can you get them to nurse more often on mom? But I think that if they are sleeping and quiet I would think they were normal and this is just how they and their growth is. As long as they are gaining weight is all that matters I would think. IMO

I had a litter about 2 years ago-the smallest puppies I've ever had but all consistent in weight to each other-all weighed in around 11 lbs at 8 weeks. Now grown some are 85 lbs where others are 60 lbs.

Thanks so much for your replies, I will start them on solid food as soon as they are able to eat it. They are up and walking, aren't crying like I would expect if they were hungery, so hopefully everything will continue to progress nicely.