Hello all.

I have just been to pick my first ever puppy today :D and having a choice of quite a few I have decided on the runt of the litter. The breeder has advised me it shouldnt make any difference health wise but I was hoping for any comments or opinions. The pup was healthy looking and was happy to stand up for himself with the other pups.

Thanks!
Cathy

My first dog was the runt too, he was 1/2 the size of his litter mates but was the last one left in a litter from a golden retriever mother and a flatcoat father.
He turned into the most fantastic dog I could ever have hoped for and when we met his brothers when they were 2 years old he was much bigger than them all.
If the reason they are the runt is because they just had a bad position in utero then they should catch up but if the reason is because they are not as healthy then it could be trouble . It is difficult to tell why a pup is a runt and given a choice I wouldnt risk it. But if your pup is like my old Max was you will be lucky.
Ted

Hi Cathy
providing you are buying your puppy from a reputable breeder..one that has had all health checks done on any dogs they breed from, rear their pups like they are gold dust and take an interest in the pups welfare after theyve gone to their new homes you should be ok, runts used to be poor doers that continually had health problems, were little and never really made size..but now we don't really get runts, just a small one maybe that catches up as time goes on...I say this ...and only apply this to good breeders 'runts' only, as many breeders say now...good breeders don't have runts :D
tRACEY

out of my litter of six, busta was only 7oz at birth and i was really worried about him.he was very strong though, ate well and could really stick up for himself even though his littermates were twice his size.he is now at his new home and i have seen him recently and although still not a s big as the other pups he is just as healthy,good luck!!!

Thanks everyone. Must admit I couldnt resist him and he did look helthy enough. Breeder was very good and all checks had been made on the parents prior to mating. Cant wait to get him :D

Has anyone got any advise on introducing my 2 cats to him. 1 is used to dogs (male) but the female has never seen a dog and shes quite shy. She has had kittens previously so i'm hoping her maternal instincts will come out :P

Welcome to the forum Catherine. If you run a search, you can find past threads on introducing puppies to cats :-)

Thanks for that!

Have just looked at past comments and it was very helpful.

Cathy

MB was the runt of the litter and now at six months you would never know ! She has one of the most out going personalities of any Labs I have had and certainly can hold her own when having rough and tumbles with the other two !

We did make sure she had extras in the first few weeks we had her, just to give her an extra hand which has obviously worked ! (JWB puppy food supplemented with boiled chicken and scrambled eggs)

Good luck with your pup !

Lucy

My lab was the smallest of the litter and I deliberately chose her for that reason but she's just growing and growing and growing.

It seems to by no way mean they will be a small adult. The vet has said she's growing so much she might be a bigger than average lab.

My brother chose the runt ( a malmute) and he turned out to be a beautiful boy and was larger than the rest of the litter when he was fully grown. You can never tell. Best of luck with your new puppy.

Can I ask - does every litter have a runt ???
lel

In short, no.
:)
Edited to add: I saw a pretty litter today of 3 normal-sized pups and one huge thug!!

Obviously there is always a biggest and always a smallest but the difference can be from marginal to quite a fair bit! The smallest is known as the runt but it that correct? Suppose for example a person mates a bitch several times over say, a four day period. Some eggs could have been fertilised at the first mating. Other may not have been fertilised until the last mating. Easy to see that puppies resulting from the last eggs to be fertilised will effectively be 4 days premature in comparison to puppies resulting from the first eggs to be fertilised. Add to that competition for food at the milk bar and the "Premature" puppy could lag even further behind.

This is not the whole answer, there are real runts out there but to really qualify as a runt, to me anyway, it needs rather more than to be just a little smaller than its litter mates. Sickly is the word which springs to mind.

Best wishes, John

My impression of a runt is a small sicklier pup but wasnt sure whether a breeder classed the smallest of the litter as a runt - thats the reason I asked . :)
Lel

Small and sickly is a very good description of a runt. Luckily they aren't really all that common.
:)

My "small" puppy from my last litter is now a good sized adult bitch & absolutely beautiful, full of character too...... wish I'd kept her now, you should see her movement!