Bulldogs World

and I am curious to see what experienced breeders have to say.

We have a breeder here that saved a puppy recenty out of a large litter (all lost but this 1) and it is also very tiny.  Something like 3 lbs at 10 wks.  Is your puppy healthy otherwise?  What was the birthweight of the puppy and has it been gaining weight.  Is the puppy eating well, or nalnourished? 

What I will say is that many puppies that may have been considered runts of the litter grow up to be normal or even larger then the other puppies in the litter.  My boy Kohl was the smallest male of the litter and only one other female puppy was smaller then him and yet he ended up being the biggest in the litter with the most substance of any in the litter.  He is about 65 lbs and the other males are closer to the 50-55 range with 2 girls at 40-45 lbs.

I hope the puppy is ok!  nothing wrong with little and healthy, she will make a great pet.

By age 6 weeks I'd expect a pup to be from 5 to 7 pounds.

Has the pup been for her 1st Vet check yet? My mind wanders to things like heart problems, digestive problems, endocrine issues or maybe a hydrocephalic pup. Sure hope it is none of these and just a super tiny pup.

I mentioned these things from past experiences - Years ago I had a lone survivor from a litter of 4 that was small and very slow to grow. At his 7 week Vet visit he was noted with a grade 3 heart murmur. He eventually grew to near normal size, about 50 pounds, but his heart issues got worse and I lost him at 14 months of age. Two years ago I raised a litter for another breeder that had a small male who had a huge appitite but didn't grow normally, at the 1st Vet visit he was diagnosed as hydrocephalic and put down.

Hi there!

Yes!! I had a TINY girl in my litter this summer. First of all, she's 17 weeks old now and around 15 pounds. She was born weighing almost the same as the other 4 puppies. They were around 11-14 ounces, and she was just under 10 ounces. They all lost a little weight right off, to be expected. But, everyone except her started putting the weight back on within the first 2 days. By the second day I did start tube feeding her. I started tubing her with Goat Milk 5cc every 2 hours, and every 24 hours kept increasing that until I was giving her 1-2 cc of Goat Milk OVER whatever her body weight was at the time. I would weigh her after every feeding. So when she got back up to 10 ounces, I was feeding her 11 cc, and so on. The day they turned 4 weeks old she finally reached 1 pound! The others were 4-5 pounds. At 3 weeks old I did start a little rice cereal. I would tube feed her the regular amount, then supplement with a little rice cereal mixed with Goat Milk. By 4 weeks I was adding very moist puppy food, smashed completely, mixed with rice cereal and Goat Milk. It wasn't until after 4 weeks that she finally started putting more weight on steadily. When she went to her new home at 8 wks, 4 days old, she was 5 pounds! So, she did finally start gaining well. I had blood work done on her at 7 weeks old to make sure she was ok because I was still quite concerned about her size. At first the vet thought she may have a liver disorder, such as a shunt. They did further testing and she did NOT have a liver shunt! Upon doing repeated lab work, everything came back NORMAL! From the day she was born, she was the most active, feistiest one in the bunch. Always a fighter, she wasn't about to give up and neither was I! So glad I didn't! It was SO hard to let her go, we got so attached to each other. Luckily she's close by and I still get to visit her! My email address is smrose2005@yahoo.com, if you want to email me with any other questions. Best of luck!
Suzie

(public facebook links, you don't need a fb account to view them)

Pictures growing up:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2236890767059.2132480.13916815...

12 weeks old:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2415260306186.2139284.13916815...

When we got Beatrix at 8 weeks old, she only weighed about 2.5 pounds. However, she came from a VERY large litter, and all the puppies were tiny like that, which sounds like it isn't the case with your pup. By the time Beatrix was 10 weeks old (and had spent two weeks not competing for food) she weighed 6 pounds -- I was AMAZED by how fast she grew at that point!