my bitch had 8 pups 5 days a go.she has been a excellent mum so far and all the pups are gaining weight the problem is my bitch keeps taking the smallest pup out of the welping box and puts her behind a chair she will lay and feed her but just leaves her there to go back to the others .i did have all the pups and mum checked the day after welping and everything was ok any ideas on why she is doing this thanks

Admin edit and moved to Behaviour

Can't say why, but my female would always grab this one pup and cuddle it and push the rest to the side, she would look after and mother the healthy ones no problem just took more care with this one. He was born with a cleft pallet and could suk but guess not enough, he passed away 3 days later. My first litter with a different male and I was just gonna take him to the vet that day but he all ready passed away. :(

My friends cat kept bringing her 10 day old kitten to her and I guess there was something wrong because the kitten passed away. She had no sign of cleft pallet or anything, but more then likely something internal.

ttfn :(

My bitch did a similar thing to one of her puppies, she had 8 puppies 14 months ago. After the first couple of days she kept taking the smallest puppy away from the others and digging a 'hole' on my bed to put him in. I could never make out if she was trying to take him away from the others becuase she was rejecting him or give him special attention. In the end we decided she was trying to make sure he got enough of a feed and helped her put him back with the others after a feed. We carried on making sure he got one of the fuller teats with plenty of milk, near the back at each feed time. He reamained smaller but grew steadily, he is now a lovely healthy young dog - very similar in size to the others. I would be interested to know what others think about this behaviour.