Disaster litter survivor - any advice welcome

Nici

Nici

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Our Rottweiler cross girl died at the ripe old age of 14 back in March. As luck would have it, an acquaintance had at that point had an accidental litter. The puppies were Rottweiler-Great Dane crosses. We offered to adopt one at 8 weeks, but just as the puppies were about to turn 4 weeks old, several accidents (I'll say it here: owner negligence) caused all but one puppy to die. On the day we heard that there was only one puppy left, I picked her up. We've been syringe-feeding her, then hand-feeding and she is about to turn 8 weeks old next Thursday.
She was not in a good state at first. At 4 weeks old, she weighed 620 grams when she should have been weighing at least a couple of kilos. She had also been eating straw out of desperation because that's what we saw coming out of the other end for the first week after we got her.
I'm chuffed to say that Jinga the Warrior Queen now weighs over two kilos at 7 weeks, is eating by herself and is such a kind, fun puppy.
Has anybody had any experience training a hand-reared puppy? Our other dogs help us somewhat, but there's nothing quite like a mum and littermates to teach puppy manners.IMG_20250518_001524.jpg
 
I picked one up at 5 1/2 weeks as the home she was from was not suitable and I thought we'd give her as good a chance as anything.

She was ace! Easy to train. Perhaps easier as we had a mature dog at home for her to follow.

Yours looks beautiful.
 
Red-1 said:
I picked one up at 5 1/2 weeks as the home she was from was not suitable and I thought we'd give her as good a chance as anything.

She was ace! Easy to train. Perhaps easier as we had a mature dog at home for her to follow.

Yours looks beautiful.
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That's wonderful, I hope the same happens here! Thank you!
 
We
Red-1 said:
I picked one up at 5 1/2 weeks as the home she was from was not suitable and I thought we'd give her as good a chance as anything.

She was ace! Easy to train. Perhaps easier as we had a mature dog at home for her to follow.

Yours looks beautiful.
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It used to be the norm to take pups away from their mum at 6 weeks. If you've got her successfully to 7 weeks, with another dog at home, I'm sure she will be fine.
As you will know from your previous dog, training absolutely must be consistent with Rotts, so no letting her get away with unwanted behaviour "just this once" because she was hand-reared. Otherwise, she will be just like any other pup who is going to grow up into a big strong, determined dog. She looks lovely.
 
Not terribly comparable on breed but...
My little terrier X who I sadly lost at the end of last year was part of a litter abandoned at about 4 weeks old. Two of the 4 seemed fine and my boss at the time made them a pen and put them under heat lamps (they were experienced breeders themselves), but the other two were very weak and the vet was dubious they would survive. I took them home to syringe food to at regular intervals. I kept Dee who was one of these weaker two, and they all survived and went onto new homes & normal lives.

My little Dee went onto live to a fair old age and never troubled the vet except in the last 18 months of her life when she had eye troubles (glaucoma). I never did anything particularly special with her, mainly because I was fairly clueless back then. After the first few days of syringe feeding I just fed her generic puppy food as far as I remember. She went everywhere with me when younger and was my little shadow. She was also one of those dogs that pretty much trained themselves tbh, she was never really a moment's trouble.

Good luck with your girl, she looks lovely 🙂
 
Pearlsasinger said:
We

It used to be the norm to take pups away from their mum at 6 weeks. If you've got her successfully to 7 weeks, with another dog at home, I'm sure she will be fine.
As you will know from your previous dog, training absolutely must be consistent with Rotts, so no letting her get away with unwanted behaviour "just this once" because she was hand-reared. Otherwise, she will be just like any other pup who is going to grow up into a big strong, determined dog. She looks lovely.
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Thank you Pearlsasinger, yes, I think that's the way to go. Our Dalmatian/Weimaraner cross girl is acting as a bit of a foster mum to the puppy. Older dogs are such useful role models! 😁
 
DabDab said:
Not terribly comparable on breed but...
My little terrier X who I sadly lost at the end of last year was part of a litter abandoned at about 4 weeks old. Two of the 4 seemed fine and my boss at the time made them a pen and put them under heat lamps (they were experienced breeders themselves), but the other two were very weak and the vet was dubious they would survive. I took them home to syringe food to at regular intervals. I kept Dee who was one of these weaker two, and they all survived and went onto new homes & normal lives.

My little Dee went onto live to a fair old age and never troubled the vet except in the last 18 months of her life when she had eye troubles (glaucoma). I never did anything particularly special with her, mainly because I was fairly clueless back then. After the first few days of syringe feeding I just fed her generic puppy food as far as I remember. She went everywhere with me when younger and was my little shadow. She was also one of those dogs that pretty much trained themselves tbh, she was never really a moment's trouble.

Good luck with your girl, she looks lovely 🙂
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Thank you so much DabDab, it's wonderful reading your terrier's story, that really motivated me! 🥰
 
Barton Bounty said:
Our first staffy was rejected by his mother at 4 weeks, we hand reared him too and he turned out to be a cracking dog 😊
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EventingMum said:
We got one at five weeks as the mum stopped feeding them and her owners weren't coping well. I can honestly say he was the easiest dog we've ever had and his sole mission in life was to please us and be told he was a good boy!
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Barton Bounty and EventingMum, how brilliant and thank you, all the more motivation for us! ❤️
 
Cinnamontoast said:
If she’s got this far, I’d say she’s going to be fine. She’s very pretty.

I dread to think what happened to her siblings 🙁 Our first 2 were 6 weeks, iirc. Easiest dogs of the 3 pairs by miles.
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The first five of nine were flattened by their obese mum. Two more died from starvation because nobody noticed that the mum was left without water and was consequently not producing any milk. At that point the two surviving puppies were eating straw and faeces. Then Jinga's sibling died too. Just sad really.
 
Nici said:
The first five of nine were flattened by their obese mum. Two more died from starvation because nobody noticed that the mum was left without water and was consequently not producing any milk. At that point the two surviving puppies were eating straw and faeces. Then Jinga's sibling died too. Just sad really.
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Jeez, that’s appalling 😢 I’m really pleased you’ve got little one.
 
As children, We hand reared one from a week old after mum was run over, single puppy of an accidental litter, border x jrt. She was a loyal, faithful fun companion who lived until she was about 15.

She was also wilful, happy to bite any strangers on our command, took umbrage very quickly with other bitches, a useless mother herself and a total character😂. We loved her dearly
 
Rokele55 said:
As children, We hand reared one from a week old after mum was run over, single puppy of an accidental litter, border x jrt. She was a loyal, faithful fun companion who lived until she was about 15.

She was also wilful, happy to bite any strangers on our command, took umbrage very quickly with other bitches, a useless mother herself and a total character😂. We loved her dearly
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Aaw, she sounds like she was such fun! Jrts crack me up. 😄
 
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