Runt puppy won't latch. Can I just hold her to nurse every 2 hours?

You can try supplemental feeding with dog milk replacer and keep him warm and next to the mother and others if possible. Sometimes there is an underlying medical problem with the runt and in spite of your best efforts they do not survive. Dogs and other animals have litters with several pups because there is often one or two that don’t live. Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach to help you care for Lucky.

Provide additional heat support as needed. Be careful to not cause burns though. You can pick up some Esbilac or Pet-Lac at the local Petco and supplement the runt. Keep track of his weight to confirms adequate gains.

The length depends on how hungry they are and how much milk she has. If your puppies are not gaining weight and do not have round full bellies after nursing, she may not have enough milk for them and you may have to supplement them with puppy milk.

I would recommend taking him away from the others for feeding and hand feed a calorie rich food such as royal canin recovery or hills a/d through a syringe if he won't eat voluntarily. Try to get an earlier appointment for full health check if possible

Yes! You absolutely must booster the runt a bit as it is likely getting much less nutrition than the others in the litter. Mom will neither reject the pup nor will the pup reject mom if you add additional nutritional support. This is very commonly done by breeders with smaller pups.

It sounds like you are doing all the right things. She should be bottle fed every 3 hours or so. Keep her nice and warm, environmental temperature should be around 80 if she isn’t snuggling with mom or with the other kittens. I would try to encourage her to nurse first, and then offer the bottle. Weigh her on a gram scale daily to make sure she is gaining weight daily. Best of luck and I hope she improves soon. Thank you for using Pet Coach.

Hello. There always seems to be one puppy that just seems to struggle, but this does not mean anything is wrong. As long as you see the mother dog nursing her, cleaning her, & not ignoring or pushing this puppy to the side, then she will be fine. Often these slow starters will easily catch up to their littermates in time. Just keep a close eye on everyone. Buying a small digital kitchen scale & taking weights 2 times a week will make sure everyone is growing. Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach.