My friends bitch had 14 pups through the night (large breed), she is really struggling to feed them all and they are quite small. The vet has suggested giving skinners puppy milk to top up but friend is worried this will cause problems with mum in terms of the smell etc??  and also getting the pups to take from a bottle aswell as suckle on mum.  Would it be best to remove a few and hand rear completely? 

I would say it is too early to tell whether the bitch will cope by herself. In January mine fed a litter of 10 (medium breed, average litter usually 6) by herself til they were 3 weeks old. Why does your friend think the bitch is struggling to feed them all? Usually they do quite well with "2 sittings" and the milk will not be flowing greatly just yet.

As in humans milk doesn't come in properly until about the third day, which is why in the first three days the pups are almost constantly suckling and the bitch never leaves therm except to be forced to go to the toilet.

After the milk comes through in more volume pups actually get more each feed and there are more obvious feeding and sleeping periods.

I would never remove any pups to be hand reared, would sooner have to top them all up several times a day and they are then still getting the benefit of mothers milk.  I would constantly plug in smaller pups whenever I came near the bitch.

I would avoid any additional feeding if pups all look content for the first few days, even if a little weight is lost.

I have a medium size breed (20kg adult weight) and one bitch my friend bred had litters of 14 twice (though reared 13 in one) and she had plenty of milk up to normal weaning age.

If you hand rear some of the pups they won't benefit from Mums milk, and also it will be much more work (every two hours around the clock) for you and hardly any less for her, and might upset her and stress would affect her milk negatively.

I reared a large breed litter of 12 almost 13 years ago and my bitch coped, all I did to take some pressure off of her was to start weaning at 2 weeks (As advised by my vet) instead of 3 and they took to it like ducks to water!

We have reared very large litters without any additional supplementation from us.  As previously stated, it does take a few days for the full milk to come.  Having had to hand rear a litter of 13 last year due to the Mum dying on the table having a C-section, this would only be the very last resort.  Handrearing comes with its own problems and it is so easy to flood the puppies lungs.   It is just a matter of constantly watching to make sure all the babies are having a turn at the milk bar and holding them in place if necessary.  We also start weaning at 2 weeks with large litters. 

I would agree with very large litters weaning can start almost as soon as the eyes are open if you feel the weight gain is dropping off.

I had a med-large dog litter, 12 pups in Jan. I thought i may have to help out, but i weighed the pups every day and kept an eye on who wasnt gaining as much as the others. For any that wernt i would rotate. All went well. A previous litter I had was 11 pups, one wasnt gaining at all (wasnt losing) but i did top up that one.  Just keep a close eye, thats what I would advise

xx

Probably obvious, so excuse me if I'm preaching to the converted, but obviously you need to get as much good quality food down Mum as she will take to enable her to produce the milk for the pups without making herself ill.

M.

4 to 6 meals a day, well soaked too, to maximise liquid intake (also with all that cleanign bitches mouths can become tender.

Hi all thanks for the replies.  I popped in to see the pups this morning and they are all doing well, mum is managing to feed them and keep them content at the moment.  I think my friend was just worried because they always seemed hungry at first and the vet said she wouldnt manage to feed them all and he would need to substitute but so far so good, they are all very small but seem content enough. 

Thanks again.

I would expect them to be smaller than pups in a smaller litter, it is them gaining that is important,.

I have kept detailed weight records of my litters and the weights can vary markedly yet have very little effect on eventual adult size and substance which is genetic.

I have found that by 12 weeks of age pups from various litters are about the same weight and size with just males a bit bigger than bitches.  After all they are only on bitch only for 3 weeks or less.