Hello everyone, do you have any experience of having a single puppy litter?  This is my first one, she is 17days old and strong and healthy.  I have been having difficulty finding out anything regarding single pups, it does not seem to be covered in any detail in any of the books I have and I have not found any websites that cover it in detail!   Does anyone know if you have to do anything particularly different?  I would love to hear from anyone with experience or knowledge of single pup litters and how they developed in adult life?  Look forward to hearing from you.

Sunnydee, i have recently had a two pup litter (two weeks ago), this is my first and was unsure what to do.  Their mum has enough milk to feed an army and they are doing really well I have not had to interfere as regards their feeding at all.

Hope everything is okay though.

I am sure members will be along to advise you shortly. In the mean time you could try entering the words 'singleton puppy' in the search facility. You will gain access to some past threads on this subject.

Hi, I've not had the experience of rearing a single pup, but these websites look quite helpful - http://www.whippetview.com/singlepup%5B1%5D.html
and http://www.canadawestieclub.ca/breeding/lonepup.html.

Hi. My Chloe was the only pup in her litter. Apart from her mum cleaning and feeding her it was up to me to play with her. In fact it was very much "I've fed and cleaned it, now it's yours. ;) " You have to keep a closer eye on temperature, etc.

It was definately much more hard work than a larger litter, but I bonded with her better than most. Needless to say I couldn't let her go :D . She has had one litter so far (13 pups) and is hopefully expecting again - though she did 'miss' last season.

Hi, Junior was the only pup in his litter (which turned out to be his Mum's only litter)  He was immediatly adopted by his Aunt too, who calmly lay down on the other side of Muym and Pup and came into milk.  so he had the choice of 2 milk bars, and was the most washed pup ever.    Becasue he had so much attention he never cried once, just totally spoiled and adored.  And of course, I fell for him and kept him.  He never made show grade, but he is still my favourite Yankee!  Trouble is, he had always bonded bettwe with people than dogs, possbily as he never had pups to play with.  I made extra sure he gots lots of socialisation etc, and bought him lots of toys which made different noises, different textures etc.  Puglet too was a singleton, but slightly differetn as she was rejected by her mum and had to be hand reared, with a little help from an American cocker bitch.  She had many health problems and hardly grew at all for weeks, so her situation was very differnt from most pups.  However, she too is much more bonded to people than dogs.  Biggest problem is monitoring growth and developemnt, without siblings for comparison.  Keep a careful eye for all the usual stages (eye opening, hearing things, walking, feeding etc etc).
bye
Gwen

I've had 2 singleton litters. The dam had one litter of 4, & 2 x 1 litter. I had to keep them both, because I felt so sorry for them!!  :D The only difference I found was that I felt I had to give them more attention because they didn't have any litter mates to play with & Mum was never particularly playful. I made sure they had plenty of toys & they seemed to like bigger (littermate sized!) toys. If I didn't make the effort to give them attention, they would just sleep all the time (well, the bitch would, the dog was more extrovert & the apple of his mum's eye). He was the only pup she ever showed any signs of being protective towards.
They both grew into delightful adults, but not noticably different in temperament than their older sibling.

Hi there

I am in pretty much in the same situation as you, my wee girl produced one big healthy bitch puppy 4 and a half weeks ago. We were intending to keep a puppy from the litter so this wee girl that appeared will be staying with us. I find that she demands a lot of playtime as Mum is at the I'll clean you and give you a very occasional feed but thats it stage (as I type this she has come upsatirs and is lying on the bed fast asleep having a rest ).The pup demands so much from her however, I am really lucky as I have two kids 9 & 7 who are very gentle and would spend all their waking moments playing with her. She has a huge amount of toys, but she seems to prefer a puppy size toy to attack. I know the breeder I got my girl from had a single pup litter and she was exceptionally lucky that her pup was show standard, as far as I'm concerned I have another lovely girl to spoil and play with and if she turns out to be good enough for showing it'll be a bonus.

Good luck with your puppy

Alli

I had two litters of singletons and it was hard work although it was some years ago. We kept both and Ive always said that I wouldn't keep another singleton and alot of people I have spoken to have said the same.  They were both bitches, very dominent and very possessive and hated the sight of each other and other dogs. Having said that although they were hard work at times we loved them and learnt a lot from them. We lost the younger one last month aged ten and a half and the older one is still with us.  I think a lot to do with the problems we had was probably our inexperience of having singletons.  They need plenty of socialisation with people and other dogs when young particularly of their own age since they don't develop within a pack. 

Thanks to every one who replied with advice and their experiences of singleton litters!  It was really helpful.  She is 3wks now and developing well,  I have a 14wk old puppy of a different breed that happened to come along just before this pup was born, at the time I nearly did not have her with a litter on the way, but decided that has I had waited so long for her I had to go for it, maybe it was a blessing in disguise - as I am hoping that once solo pup is old enough I can let them play together and it may help with her development of playing and socialising etc?   At the moment she is still a bit wobbly on her legs etc so shall wait until she is about 5 wks.  Not sure whether I am keeping her yet, but can see how you bond more with her being the only one!  I really want to be able to show her so am going to make my mind up when she is a bit older and a few other people have cast their expert eye over her!  Thanks again and if you have any more experiences of singleton litters I would love to hear them.

Hi Sunnydee - just a postscript. When my singeton bitch was 4mths, I had another litter (different dam, obviously but same breed), so she was about 5mths when she started to play with the puppies. She was extremely rough with the baby pups, not malicious, just her idea of play was to throw the babies around until they yelped (real live squeaky toys!!), so she had to be watched every second. She did get a bit better, but wasn't really the same as having her own littermates.

I have also found that singletons tend to be very rough and bolshy and need to learn to "play" and interact with other puppies as soon as possible.  In this instance the socialisation with other pups is more important, IMO than the risk of diseases

I dont know if it is at all the result of him beng a singleton pup or not, but Junior has some interesting character traits.  He is completley not interested in Sex, which is good, as he would never be good enough to be used at Stud!  the bitches climb all over hiim when in season and he is totally apathetic (of course, I dont leave him alsone with in season bitches, just in case, but he is 5 now, and has always lived in a house full of girls, without a sign of excitement!  He is however, a first class puppy washer.  He gets terrifically excited when a new is being born, rushing around and collectin toys which he drops into the whelping box (not awfully helpful :) )  and if any mums are not great on the hygience routine he gladly steps in.  Jack & Jill, the last 2 pug pups here, were washed from day 2 exclusively by Junior.  I checked up with a baby wipe occasionally, but he made a pristine job of it, including all the poo cleaning!  (Mum was not interested in the pups at all, ignored them until they were on solids) .
bye
Gwen