Bottle Raised Puppy

[Emily]

I read a post about not bottle feeding a puppy. I have a bottle fed baby. The mother completely ignored her. Does bottle raising effect them for the rest of their life? Is there anything I should look out for behavior wise? She is 10 weeks old and a little spoiled :p I will not be breedung her. I am just trying to do whats best for my dog.

[Judi W]

If she had no contact with the mother at all and was raised as a singleton (no littermates) then yes, it will have quite a bit of effect and she needs contact with other dogs soonest. If she had interaction with the mother even if not fed by her, and littermates to interact with it should be just fine. Not optimal, but OK.

Pups that are strictly bottle fed and hand raised are often spoiled with over-pampering and also missing important dog to dog social skills. Find dogs for her to interact with and do not pamper her, she'll be fine.

[rottielover00]

A friend of mine had a Doberman that was taken away from the mom at 4 weeks and bottle fed. Now it had medical problems and she says that's the cause. Also to second Judi about missing the important social skills. The Doberman now won't go around any other animals. The owner babysat a cat and the dobie lost 10 pounds because of his poor social skills. Your rottie might turn out fine but in this case the dobie was permanently scarred.

Good luck!

[Emily]

There were 8 pups all rejected. Only 3 survived. She was playing well with another female when I arrived to pick her up. We also have another dog that she plays well with. I will try not to give her any special pampering. Certainly not accepting behavior wise amyway. Thanks for the advice. I will try to get her around some more dogs asap.
Emily

[Judi W]

Then she should be fine. The temptation on the breeder's part is to really pamper and over-shelter the pups because they have lost some so they don't let the pup get exposed to the many things they need. You can give her as many adventures as possible. She'll bloom.

[Phoenix]

Since this topic is not Breeding related I am moving it to General Info

[Burnsway]

SOCIALIZE SOCIALIZE SOCIALIZE


I have a 16 year old chow/mix I bottled fed for couple days but then mom took her on. I think original reason mom rejected her is that she had 7 pups. Mom was red chow and 3 pups came out solid red. Dad was white eskimo, 3 pups came out solid white. Both parents were pure bred. Well my little gal came out the runt and solid black!!!! Imagin what mom was thinking...lol. After a few days of encouragement mom took her in but didnt care for her all that much. I moved from that house when that pup was only 5 weeks and they said take her with or they would sell her... :(


Little did I realize I would still have her 16 years later. I was 17 at the time. She was well socialized with people but not animals. She has always been very healthy but doesn't have a real good temperament outside of immediat family. This would be my fault!!!! I did not socialize her outside of family. I babied her...

[ July 27, 2001: Message edited by: Burnsway ]

[ July 27, 2001: Message edited by: Burnsway ]