A friends bitch (small Gundog) whelped on Sunday with no problems. However,  she has two pups not feeding very well and one not gaining any ground. She is having to pipette feed one as the pup seems to be reluctant to feed from a teat. They have all been Vet checked and no cleft palates. The other problem is that the pups will not feed from the bitches two back breasts. They are absolutely full of milk but the teats seem to be very flat against the breast (probably something like inverted nipple). Any suggestions as to how to get the nipples to protrude and gets the two pups feeding better. I can not intervene as the bitch (although she knows me) is not happy to have me too close. Any suggestions gratefully received.

Has she tried nutri drops to stimulate the puppies appetite? I find this really good. Also I would keep trying to put them on the teat as you may find as they gain strength they will suckle.

I have a litter of 5 week old pups here (bitches first litter) and its funny you ask the question about the back teats as these pups wouldnt suckle from them either. I would put the 2 strongest pups on them but the nipples were very small and they wouldnt stay on them for too long. They were full of milk so I massaged them and kept putting pups on but they werent having none of it. The milk dried up in them at around 2 weeks, even now she has milk in the others but not them. I would also make sure the nipples have a duct as I have had a bitch like that and I didnt notice till the breast got huge and I tried to express some to interest the pups!!!

Thanks for the reply. The milk can be expressed from them but it is nice to know that someone has had the same problem because I am at a loss at what to suggest now as I have never encountered this problem. Will tell her to get some Nutri Drops ordered. Thanks for your help.

Yes, even the 2 big strong pups Ellie had last time couldn't immediately get on with those back teats - they were very flat nipples. They got the hang of it better as they grew.

Been up today and the breasts have gone down some and now the teats are protruding. I think that there was too much milk and it was stretching the teats flat (well that is what I think may have happened) the pups are now using those teats. The little bitch that wasn't suckling properly still isn't and so is being topped up every hour or so and taking about 5mls each time. She really is odd, she is not latching on, more like mouthing the teat and as the hole in the teat is a little bit larger then the squeezing of her gums together is causing the milk to go down (thankfully). Some was going into the palm of my hand and when the teat came out of her mouth she then proceeded to suck up the milk in my palm! I am hoping that if the breeder perservers with a bottle rather than a pipette then she may learn to suck properly. Thanks for the help.