The American Beagler Forum

I have a litter of pups that are now going on 4 1/2 weeks old. All the pups are very bold and healthy. The one in this litter that stands out the most is the runt however. When i go to feed she's always the first out of the box to meet you. I have 8 in this litter and keeping 4 jus t wandering how many of you all actually keep runts? I'm leaning very hard towards keeping her just got a feeling.Any and all opinions would be greatly appreciated Thanks.

Only issue is usually the size, if you run smaller dogs, I'd keep her. If she's already that eager to go, only good things to come. JMI

I myself like the biggest and the strongest but you never know the smallest could grow up to be bigger than some of the others Ive seen it before the size of the heart is what matters

when you wean pups leave it on an extra week in addition to food. sometimes it helps catch them up

Mason' thanks for the tip i have never heard of that but i definetly will give it a try. I'm like most of you all i usually keep the biggest and strongest the thing is she put's my bigger pups in there place with relative ease if you know what i meen.

I keep runts alot , to me they are tuffer because they have to go the extra mile to servive , fight for tit , food and play. JMO

I think it all depends on the litter. She may not be a real runt, she may just be small. In one of my litters i have a REAL runt. He barely survived but I bottle fed him for two days and now he's doing pretty well at 5 weeks. He's ugly I think, but somebody will love him. He seems healthy enough but certainly won't turn into a swan.

Previously i had a tiny female that was just gorgeous and normal in every way but just small. She has been my most winningest showdog to date and is parked right at 13."

If she's a runt (weakling -- poor quality) sell her as a pet, if she's just SMALL but proportioned and co-ordinated I'd probably run on her awhile and see.

Dont think that it will be the smallest dog I have a male out of Blue barry that I was told was the runt of the litter,He is an awesome dog @ 17 inches.

no problem taylor that trick was told to me by one of the most knowledgable houndsmen in the State of Ky. he said he has done it many times and most times the runt will catch up with the added nutrition from Mom and the Puppy Chow.

I like small dogs. I don't trial, I strictly hunt. I like a small dog that can get through briars, fences, or whatever they have to go through. As long as they are good hunters that work the way I want them to I keep them.

The runts in each litter out of the Ali-baba female I have typically are the tuffest, fiesty, and bossy pups in the litter.

Runt by definition is the smallest animal of a litter no mention of sickly etc.

This runt grew to be the same size as the littermate next to it:




Ya just never know, lol.

I have a female that is just over a year old now, she was the runt of a litter of five pups that I raised by hand from about twenty four hours old, when I took these pups from the mother she was the size of a large field mouse- less than half that of any of the other four pups. I fully expected to lose her in short order she was always the first I fed and I always fed her more often just to give her a fighting chance, my wife took to her immediately and she also gave a little extra attention at feeding time and usually held her for long periods of time afterward just because. This pup grew slower, developed slower, and always seemed weaker than the rest, There were two females counting her and the owner of the stud had first pick of the females and he looks for size first so the other female was the obvious choice, I keep only females so this left me with "Daisy" which is what she was tagged by my wife and daughters- I was not thrilled but I kept her and to this day have not regretted it at all she grew fast after she started eating food and became a long, lean, racy little hound and has the tenacity of a small rottwieller, she is well started and has a loud squalling mouth with plenty of foot and believe it or not she has as much bottom end as any dog in my kennel, needless to say I am more than happy with my runt.

You all sure are making me feel better about my decision to keep her-the runt. Honey she may not be a runt because she is as healthy and fiesty as the rest of her littermates, i would actually say the fiestiest of em.Thanks again for everyone's thoughts on the matter.

My actual runt from my recent litter is turning into hell on wheels. Poor little guy would probably make ole Mike Vick (or whatever the scumbags name is) happy as today his big tough sister was pushing him around and he turned on her, grabbed her scruff, and hung on while she ran SQUEALING across the floor and he was still ready for more.
He's not very cuddly anymore even though I bottle fed him at first too. He's ugly, defensive and vicious, lol.

No homes with little kids for him