At 05:28 PM 6/30/00 -0400, Janet Morrow wrote:
>I have been seriously thinking whether I should supplement the pups, or let
>nature take its course.
I don't know, sounds to me like you have a couple of runts. They may have
a hard time getting enough milk simply because you are smaller. I don't
see anything wrong with helping them out a bit, I've done this many times
and typically what happens is they get strong enough to compete for milk
and don't need the help anymore. You have to be very careful, though. Hold
them partially upright and put one TINY drop of formula right on their
little mouths. Be careful not to get it on their noses. An eyedropper
works but a needleless syringe is a bit easier to make sure it's only a
tiny drop. If it vanishes, they're hungry. When it stops vanishing they
are full. You're not trying to force-feed them here, just offering the
formula and if they are hungry they will take it.
One rule I did make for myself when I was breeding is that the runts are
never bred. I doubt there is anything really wrong with them as they are
all healthy (I kept them all!) but just in case. That's one reason I kept
them all, to be sure they weren't bred. Of course the fact that hand
feeding made me more attached to them had nothing to do with it *cough*. :)
Tana and The Little Rascals
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