I have a 23 day old singleton puppy, she's not standing or walking yet, I was just wondering if there's anything I can do to toughen her up or help her along in the sense that cause she doesn't have litter mates is she missing out on rough play, also when would you recommend I start weaning, she's around 10oz now which is good to say she was a tiny 2.4 at birth (yorkie) any advice greatful

I hope someone comes along who has had a singleton pup in your breed and can say if they progress slower or not. By 28 days my pups are fully mobile and interacting with the other adults[see video clip on my web site]

Having all Mum's milk to herself may make her slower to wean, I would start offering her some solids, scrambled egg with a bit of cheese in it goes down well as a starter,progress to kibble soaked in warm water [not boiling] and then mashed to porridge consistency, I have heard folk mention raw mince but I haven't tried that myself, work up to 4 meals per day,allow Mum full access so her milk dries up slowly,when she has teeth Mum will be less inclined to feed her as they are like sharp needles.

I would be thinking of having the vet look at this pup. My singleton although big and slow with weaning was up on his feet and moving around by 4 weeks. Does he pull himself along with from paws?. Is he making any effort to stand at all. It does sound like there may be a problem
Aileen

we had a singleton who was a fat rolly puppy(medium breed), everytime she was trying to get a feed i would pull her off and sit her about 20cm away from mum, whilst holding her up with a few fingers to support her while learning to walk

When we had a singleton we put lots of small soft toys in the whelping box, so the pup had to clamber over them to get to mum for feeding etc. to help strengthen her legs, like they would do with their siblings.

Wouldn't hurt to have a vet check if she's not even standing yet, my singleton was up on her feet at about 16 days, very early! Someone suggested having soft toys for her to clamber over, also some vet bed in the whelping box so she can get a better grip with wobbly feet than she can with newspaper might help.

she should have been wormed by now, so if you need to get some from the vet take her for a once over.

Are her teeth through, thinking maybe her development a bit slow all over?

Otherwise she may be perfectly fine but lazy as has Mum to herself.

Toy breeds can be a lot later in getting on their feet so wouldn't worry too much especially with it being a singletom, but I would help it by putting your hand under it's chin and coaxing it.  By now my medium breed would be running around and retrieving. 

I have put a couple of soft toys in with her & no she doesn't have teeth yet I keep standing her up but she'd rather crawl, I have booked her in at the vets for a once over, I spoke to my breeder earlier she said her 1 wk old puppies weigh what she does right now, so maybe she's a little behind, I have wormed her & she's otherwise well, gaining weight & feeding good

I've only had one singleton (toybreed). He was up on his legs at 22 days and eating solids at 23 days. Is the pup perhaps rather fat, making it harder? At 19 days mine was too big to fit on the scales LOL, he was well over a pound in weight then.) I was certain he was going to grow into an elephant, thankfully he grew quickly but not too big in the end. (Weighs 3 ½ kgs as adult.) Checking my notes he was jumping out of the whelping box onto the floor at 28 days but was very unsteady on his feet at 22 days when he started walking.

I've had one singleton pup (sheltie) and gave her cuddly toys to act as litter mates, by 21 days she was begging for attention, climbing out of the box, desperate for more interaction so she moved into the kitchen and basically joined the rest of the pack.. she was a total nightmare to be honest, her mother hated her and I ended up selling her at about 10 months and her mother was glad to see the back of her ... lol ... a wonderful little dog :-)

Swimmer Puppy syndrome came to mind

http://www.lowchensaustralia.com/breeding/swimmers.htm

Have a read about it and see if your pup has similar problems, if so then the sooner treatment starts the better, I have known of cases in my breed in the US which have gone on to lead normal lives.

I think its a bit early to worry about swimmer syndrome as the pup is only 23 days old, i would take it to the vet just to be checked to put your mind at rest. We had a singleton puppy last year not of the same breed but it was a toy breed, we nick named him Jim blob as he looked like a  blob with a little leg poking out of each corner, he was around five weeks when he finally got up on all four legs. We started to be concerned about him around three weeks old when he did not really seem to be getting anywhere with his walking, we took hom to the vets and that was fine and looked into swimmer syndrome. In the end we started to limit the amount of time mum was with the pup and several times a day we would take him out and put him on a towel and make him move around abit to strengthen his muscles, by eight weeks he was just the same as any other pup

"my singleton was up on her feet at about 16 days, very early!"

My singleton was up on her feet very early too (same breed and ours are a breed that are generally slower than pups of other breeds). She weaned early too, as I don't think her Mum had a lot of milk.

I have heard though that it is quite common for singletons not to be up on their feet as quickly as normal simply because they are little puddings due to having the milk bar to themselves. I am sure this is likely to be the case with this pup.

Anyway, hope Willow is now doing well :-).

> we nick named him Jim blob as he looked like a  blob with a little leg poking out of each corner,

Ahh Bless!  :-)

I agree with cavlover though, my singletons have been gutsy little sods with there being no competition at the milk bar, and mum has happily let them over guzzle.

It always amazes me how much the fat drops off once they become mobile and into everything.