My girl had a litter of 10 today unusual for her breed and some of the pups are extremely small.they are all feeding or attempting to feed but i have noticed the big ones definately get there first and im very worried the smaller ones wont thrive.Out of all the whelping supplies i bought puppy milk wasnt one of them although i do have small syringes and evaporated milk in the cupboard.How soon will i give the tiny ones a helping hand because ive been given varying advice from breeder friends so far ranging from..Now,dont leave it a second longer to..let them nurse from mum as long as possible because its better for them,but i have no idea if they are actually getting any.It a long awaited planned litter and i want to do everything right but still need a little help,thanks

I can't give you any advice as I've never bred. I just want to say that I feel for you and really hope people will give you what you need.
In the meantime, have you tried rotating the pups on the mum?
I've had children and know that: the cholostrum, (first few days of milk) is very important; it can take a while for some to really get their appetite - birthing takes more energy from some than others.

There is an orphan puppies site on FB with loads of useful advice

Once the larger pups have got the milk flowing take them off and get those tiny tots suckling.  You can't afford to lose the first few hours.

If you need to supplement then it's the bigger ones you should top up so the littlies get the best milk which is the bitches.  Assuming they all feed.

I would spend the first three days with them constantly and wake the small pups and put them onto feed ensuring they get the first few minutes uninterrupted by the bigger ones.

Every time you pass the box get those small pups on a teat.

My first litter was a 10 with one small one and my children used to rotate the puppies around and make sure the littlie got her fair share. In my sheep if there are multiple lambs then the strong ones get bottle fed (removed from mum entirely) and the small ones get to be mothered, with pups if they are hungry they are noisy and restless so supervise feeding and feed mum as much as she will eat to make lots of milk

http://leerburg.com/bottlefeeding.htm

This recipe using evap. might help but you can use goats milk, warmed to supplement if you don't have bitch replacer milk at the moment.   With a big litter and some smaller puppies in it, you'll need to latch the smaller puppies onto the middle teats (which small puppies can cope with easier than the big 4 back teats) ahead of the bigger puppies so they get a decent innings before being pushed off.   With our 9-puppy litters, we'd roll mum over a bit so half, or thereabouts, could get onto the teats 'underneath' and then roll her back so the rest could latch onto the upper tier!   As suggested it might be a good idea to supplement the bigger puppies, if necessary so they don't draw off all the milk at one feeding, leaving a good supply for the smaller puppies.

I have had to hand rear a litter of eleven when my bitch was very sick. I use evaporated milk diluted 50:50 with water. I  find newborn baby bottles with slow flow first born teats ideal and find pups take to bottle very well. I started them off with a spot of nutidrops on teat.
I would let the bigger ones get the milk going them rotate the smaller ones onto the dam and top up the bigger pups, ensure mum gets plenty of fluids and ensure pups feed off her as much as possible as it is demand that drives milk production.

i have not hand reared pups but had to hand rear colt foal it was difficult birth foals neck was bent back we had to pull him out with ropes
lady rejected him we waited couple hours to see if she would let him suckle but not neighbouring farmer gave me lambs milk and colustrim i feed gremlin it in baby bottle i used to until i got dried  mares milk my vet was great help sadly gremlin died in my arms at 7days due to pneumania he was best foal i had bred
best advice i can give is speak to ypur vet
you could try pups on mums milk then top up with dried pup milk
i wish you best of luck

Facebook Replies:

Lorraine Lafferty Crabb says:  My dog had 8 by c section I Bottlefeed all for the first week on every other feed that is what the vet. Recommended and all are doing fab the we are delivered on 58 days and are a small bread

Jenny Bloomfield says: Put the small ones on first, keep the fat piggies back a while...if u need to supplement use goats milk...

Fran Brooks says:  Yes, put the small ones on often, back teats best

> Fran Brooks says:  Yes, put the small ones on often, back teats best

I can't agree with this - if (and we rarely did) we had a slightly smaller puppy/ies in our litters, we'd attach them to middle teats - small puppies often can't cope as well with the bigger back teats.  Could be a breed-specific thing however!

> small puppies often can't cope as well with the bigger back teats.

I agree with this middle teats until small pups are stronger then back teats by a week.

At same time put greediest pups on the very front teats to ensure they are brought into use (especially on a maiden bitch), so later there are plenty of faucets in sue for everyone.

Thanks so much for the advice,the smaller pups are  thriving and gaining weight daily so im delighted.will keep you all posted on their development x