What makes a dwarf a dwarf? Can they survive and thrive as well as other puppies? Read on to learn the answers to these questions and more. A litter dwarf is a puppy that seems to be weaker than its littermates. Once a dog goes through labor and gives birth to her puppies, there will be discrepancies in the colors, patterns, body shapes, temperaments and sizes of newborns. If they have siblings, not all of them are born the same; the same goes for dogs.
Dwarves will not always be present in a litter. Even if a litter has dogs of different sizes, the smaller one does not necessarily turn into a dwarf. Even if it is smaller, it can be as healthy and strong as the rest of the litter. However, what we do know is that dwarves are underweight compared to their siblings.
They often come out last and look smaller compared to the other puppies. Not all litters have dwarfs, says Julie Meadows, a veterinarian at UC Davis William R. Pritchard Veterinary University Hospital. However, when they have dwarfs, there is never more than one.
This applies to litters of kittens and puppies. The concept of several dwarfs per litter is essentially non-existent. Any dwarf in the litter will have the odds against them and will often need the breeder's help to survive. The first thing to do with any litter of puppies is not to assume with the naked eye that all puppies have the same weight.
At birth, a dog may reject a dwarf puppy and even refuse to rupture its amniotic sac (something that also happens, for example, when puppies are born with deformities). If your current dwarf grows to a normal, healthy size, then it's absolutely possible that their litter is also normal size. There are a wide variety of reasons why a puppy may be smaller than others at birth or be the smallest, and not all of them fully understand each other. Without much needed breeder support, the mother is likely to give up on the dwarf, especially when the litter is large.
That said, if your dwarf receives a clean health certificate and you feed him a lot of good food, he can be as incredible a companion as any other puppy. The genetic roll of the dice that resulted in an initial small size may have endowed the dwarf with the marks and characteristics of a dog intended for distinction in the show ring. The term litter dwarf is used to describe the smallest or weakest of all siblings in a dog's litter. These conditions need to be addressed for the health not only of the dwarf but of the entire litter and, ultimately, of the prey itself.
This isn't a big deal with dogs raised by humans, but in the wild, it's also difficult for dwarves to keep warm, as larger, stronger puppies push them out of warmer places. By definition, a dwarf puppy will be one (or more) of the litter whose weight is abnormally low, below the healthy level of that specific breed. In short, the dwarves in the litter can be aggressive, as some will have to do everything they can to make sure they survive. Since dwarves are smaller or weaker than the rest of the puppy squad, they do experience several disadvantages, but one of the main disadvantages is that it is more difficult for the dwarf to compete for the milk that the mother dog provides to her litter.
