Weight gain for runt of litter

My mum's boxer bitch had six puppies on Monday, one is the runt of the litter and weighs half what the others weigh, the puppy is gaining weight between 20-40 grams a day ( she only weighed 240gr when born) where as the other are gaining between 50-80 gr a day (weighed around 460 gr at birth ) , is this ok? The pup seems ok. Thanks

Should we bottle feed it once a day or will that make matters worse? Thanks

Not sure what you mean by " runt" you shouldn't really have such a thing in a well bred litter these days, I assume you mean this pup is smaller than it's siblings, your mum needs to make sure said pup has access to a nipple x( preferable one higher up the chest. Your mum needs to make sure pup us not being pushed out the way by the more stronger pups, if pup is healthy it should catch up with the other pups, supplement milk may be needed, but it might just be the pup is not getting it's fair share.

Runts can happen in well bred litters, as can stillborn puppies, puppies with genetic faults or diseases etc. Less common in well bred litters but certainly possible. My Jade was the runt, and she developed fine. She was crushed by her larger siblings so her legs are a tad wonky but she is fine. I'm no expert but I think as long as the puppy is gaining weight its okay. The runt won't gain as much as fast because he won't grow to be as large. Jade took forever to start resembling a real puppy and not just a bug eyed, dinky thing. But it happened.

Thank you guys, yeah the puppy is smaller than her siblings but very determined!

There could be many reasons why pup is smaller than it's siblings, a large litter, or a late mating, said pup could be the result of a mating days after the first , this could explain why it's smaller, using the term " runt " suggests something is wrong, when in fact it could be nothing of the sort, still birn and genetic faults do happen too, but unless that is the case here their is no reason pup won't " catch up " with it's siblings if extra care is taken regards feeding.

Small puppies at birth can and do grow as large as their siblings, specially once weaned ....

If no hidden problems are present with this pup, there is no reason it won't thrive like the rest of the litter without any deprement to development and health.

Good, her determination will help her along the way, just make sure she gets the lions share of the milk bar.....

Do you know how many matings took place, ( how far apart) also how many in the litter.

Runt here is used only to describe an unusually small puppy. Runted puppies are not "defective" necessarily to me. Jade doesn't have any true genetic faults, but she grew much smaller than her siblings and also has a short coat when the rest of them were somewhat fluffy. I'm not from the breeding world, so perhaps that was lost. The pup might catch up, but he might not.

Also, if the puppies are mixed, some dogs will not fit the breed standard of the Boxer and some will be bigger or maybe smaller than normal for the breed of the mother. But you know this already. We don't know what bred with the Boxer. Also she said there were six puppies.

My vet told me that small size had to do with how well the pup was linked to food source in the womb (implantation site) and had no genetic cause. Egg fertilization occurs over a day or two regardless of time of mating, and is governed by the bitch's hormones as affecting release of eggs. Later matings do not produce runts. Early matings may result in semen being stored for several days awaiting release of eggs. See:

http://www.dogchannel.com/dog-magazi...one-cycle.aspx

Supplementing the smaller pup is ok. In extreme cases, tube feeding may be appropriate. Periodically making sure it is on one of the very-milky back nipples is easier. If the pup is vigorous and gaining weight I wouldn't panic. The only problem with being small is that the bigger pups will push it around. This can get into a vicious cycle: smaller -> less food -> slower growth.

There's often a smaller pup in a litter, when i change the bedding all the babies go in a box with a hot water bottle, then after I've changed the bedding mum will get in, then I put the smallest puppy in with her and leave it there for 5 minutes or so whilst I do something or other, then i'll put the others back, leaving the biggest most demanding one till last as that one will always find its way to the top place on the milk bar whatever happens. As they get a bit older you can ensure the smaller one gets more of mums attention by maybe playing with its siblings to divert their attention. Once they go onto solids I'll put a couple of extra dishes down and make sure the smaller one gets one on its own, maybe slightly further away. I'll be watching them and when I've noted the slower eaters they are fed separately from the greedies behind a baby gate, they get to know where they are fed after a day or so and automatically put themselves in the correct place.