I have a 1 week old litter. With this litter, some of the pups look/feel like their coats are greasy. Some are greasy on their bottoms and tails while other are greasy on their head and/or back. Some are not greasy at all. They look wet but when you feel their coats they are actually greasy. I tried wiping them with a wash cloth but after 12 hours with mom they are greasy again. Mom is stimulating them and doing an okay job keeping the box clean, though accidents do happen. I change the linens as needed. This is the first time I have fed mom Royal Canin Max Starter. Previously fed PP My only theory is mom is stimulating them and more smearing then cleaning? Any thought?

I once had a litter like that, they were extremely greasy, I tried everything short of scrubbing them with abrasive cleaner. They weren't necessarily dirty, no poopy smell to them, just greasy as heck. Eventually, it wore off and they were perfectly fine and I never truly got to the bottom of what caused it. I never suspected food, it was the same food I'd always fed and fed after. Good luck.

Thanks Linda

Could it be the oils in the dam's food? When she licks pups soon after eating? And the first ones she's cleaned are the greasy ones; after she's done some, the grease has worn off her tongue, so not all get 'greased'???

I've had this several times when the dam is eating an overabundance of fat and calories in her diet. I usually feed my girls the highest performance food, but I had to drop my last two down to a less fat, lower calorie food for their last litters because of this problem. I find it occurs more in smaller litters.

The pups have always been healthy, even when greasy, but their poops are usually worse when mom is supplying too much fat for their little bodies to process and dispose of.