Originally Posted by BannaOj
I think you are looking for a hard and fast rule where there isn't one. My general rule of thumb would be if they are old enough to play outside and get muddy they are definitely old enough for a bath, but that's just me.
With extreme circumstances like the 10 puppy litter I am described, we sponge bathed from very young, as we would have to stimulate them to poop and pee after feeding as well. (normally the mother does this by licking them, and will eat the infant feces as well) Ciara nursed them but we had to do a large amount of formula supplementation, especially at the beginning. These were also unusually small puppies that were on the edge of viability when they were born. They had hair but were very premature, and underweight at 4-5oz (113g to 140g, and there was one that probably was only 100g.) I am and always will be proud of the fact that all 10 puppies that left the vet's office lived to become normal adults. #11, that didn't make it was the one that got stuck in the birth canal and caused the c-section to begin with. A normal puppy should open its eyes around 14 days (two weeks-ish), these didn't open their eyes til about 21 days (3 weeks-ish).
In this sort situation there is even more risk of a compromised immune system than a normal litter, and in theory you should probably avoid bathing, but we didn't have a choice. Because Ciara had a c-section she didn't get all of the hormonal surges that happen during a natural birth. I had to forcibly hold her down to nurse them for several days, and was just happy that she eventually did let them nurse on her own and didn't reject the litter entirely.
As a result, Ciara couldn't/didn't keep up with the poop and pee clean up completely so we had help her the best we could. I went through boxes of baby wipes first, and then about the time their eyes opened we went to the "popcorn bowl" baths. We were very careful to keep them warm above everything else, and none of them ever got sick.
I was concerned about whether Ciara was just a naturally "bad mother" or if it really was the large litter/c-section issues, and worried a bit about what would happen with her daughters when they were bred. Two of them have now been bred and had average-sized 6-7 puppy litters with good birthweights and both were excellent mothers, so I'm breathing a sigh of relief that it doesn't apear to have been passed on to future generations.
Whelping Shelby, Ciara's daughter was the first "normal" whelping I did on my own (although Shelby's owner was there to help) It was amazing to me, that the "runt" of Shelby's litter, was 10.5 oz newborn, double what her mother's birthweight was, and the largest puppy was 15oz, which was triple!
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