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| 2. 5 weeks old |
I'm finding myself getting more and more irritated at the members on a GSD advice page. A post from a lady who's concerned her 9 week old puppy is underweight drew my attention. At 3.7kg he is underweight, Siska was that weight yesterday at 7 weeks, but it's not the owners fault. She's had the puppy a week, if he's fit and healthy he will catch up. Worst case scenario of course is that he is ill, or he is a lot younger than he should be; with unregistered litters an unscrupulous breeder can easily lie about his age and puppies are often sold at 6 or even 5 weeks old. Well of course buyers should be doing their homework, there is a wealth of information available online, but so many see the pup and buy it!
I feel that people really should learn to be kinder, the owner realises there is a problem and needs advice not a fecking lecture, yes they may have made mistakes but the pup is with them now so it's too late. Get him vet checked, feed him well, 4 times a day, do as much socialising as you can in the current climate and he should catch up.
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| Just short of 2 weeks old |
So therefore the breeder is to blame? After all he must have reared them badly. Well hang on ... Sammi had two litters, a litter of three and a litter nine. The average weight at birth of the litter of 3 was 1lb 8oz, the average weight of the litter of 9 was less than a pound. Both times Sammi had enough food for 9 puppies, three of them gorged whilst nine of them must have had plenty as they were content and happy but obviously smaller. At four weeks old Kaiah, who was the smallest in the litter of 3 was 5.1kg, yet Orin who was the largest in the litter of nine was only 4.3 kg at his vet weigh in at 7.5 weeks. The biggest of L Litter pups are heavier than the K litter, actually Siska is now 3.7kg and may well be close to the same weight as Orin by Tuesday's vet weigh in. Raven and Elka are big pups, but nowhere near the size of Sammi's three ... The other three are smaller but they get the same as the others, we have not reared some of our litter badly, if anything you concentrate more on the smaller pups don't you. Anyway what I'm trying to say is that people are too quick to judge, to point the finger of blame. Nature is amazing, but it has its own rules ... healthy but small puppies usually catch up and thrive.
