Why are puppies born different sizes? Why are some puppies in a litter born larger than others? In this Vet Minute, Revival’s Director of Veterinary Services, Dr. Marty Greer, talks about different sized puppies in the same litter, why this happens and what you can do to help all puppies be born healthy and strong.

Can Puppies of the Same Litter Have Different Sizes?

How can I help all puppies in a litter be born healthy and strong? Some customers contact us and say they’ve had a litter born with some large, some small and some puppies that are stillborn, all in the same litter. Why does this happen and what can be done so all the puppies are born healthy and strong?

Why are Some Puppies in a Litter Bigger Than Others

Why Is One of My Puppies So Small?

Some people’s perception is that some of the puppies in the litter are premature and the other puppies in the litter are fully developed but actually that’s probably not the case. We think that when a female ovulates, all the puppies are developing at the same time, they all start at the same time so they should all be still the same gestational age. I think that’s a misconception that happens a lot. We can see infections happen in the uterus, either from bacteria that ascend up through the cervix and into the puppies that can infect the placenta development. We can have the female sick with a stomach disease, a virus or bacterial infection, that can certainly affect fetal development.

Another really important thing is to have great maternal nutrition so that she’s on an appropriate diet for a breeding dog. We prefer that they are on a performance diet, a puppy or a pregnancy diet so that the females are getting adequate amounts of nutrition. We don’t want them on an all stage diet when they’re pregnant because they will need more nutrients during that time.

We also want mom to stay fit, we don’t want her to just lay around the whole time she is pregnant and get sloppy and out of shape, that’s not good for development.

The last thing that tends to be overlooked is to try to reduce the amount of stress and trauma during pregnancy. We don’t want her out and trucking about too much and we don’t want overcrowding and we don’t want too many other females in the household that may be stressing her out at the time when she’s trying to have puppies, I don’t think that’s good for her emotionally or physically to have that happen.

Why Are Puppies Born Different Sizes

I think there are a lot of reasons for this to happen the main thing is that we’ve eliminated that misconception that gestational ages and realize just like those trees that grow on the sides of the mountains, there’s a lot of rock and just a tiny little bit of dirt and there’s this little straggly tree growing there on the rock, sometimes that’s how those placentas end up developing. They’re crowded, they don’t have much room to spread out, and those first and last puppies are usually the biggest ones with the crowding in the center causing smaller puppies mid-delivery. Unless you do a dog C-section you don’t really know the location in the uterus.

If you need help or have additional questions on why puppies are born different sizes, call us at 800.786.4751.