4 day old pups

Question
Hello,
I have a 2 year old pitbull that just had her first litter of pups. There is 9 in the litter and I have a concern about one male. This just started last night, when he crawls to his mom she almost glares at him. I have cought her snapping at him now about 6 times. He is large, fat and from my past experiences healthy. He has normal bowel movements and seems to be devoloping just fine. I was wondering why she seems to be focused on him and not so much his litter mates. I have been supplementing their diet as there was one extreme runt that in order to survie I felt he needed to be both nursed and bottle fed. Could it be because he is very large and way more agressive when it comes to feeding time? What would your recoomendations be?
Thank you,
Nicole

Answer
I had the same problem with a bitch who didn't like the female pup in the litter and rejected her.  The pup turned out neurotic because of this and became a fear biter and it took a lot of training to turn this around.  The female is still an insecure dog though so it will have an effect on your pup.  Here is a suggestion:  Make the other puppies urinate on a cotton ball by rubbing their vulvas with it and spread this urine on the large pup.  See if this makes a difference. You want this pup to smell like the other puppies.  There is a difference that she is noticing, I don't know what it is, but she does.  You might also want to take a little bit of his urine and rub it on othe other pups, but not too much, you don't want her rejecting them.  See if that works.  No one can know why a bitch will reject a pup unless it is obviously sick which this one (and mine) wasn't.  My dog turned out to be a champion in obedience.  Her insecurities made her want to please so much she was excellent in Rally.
If this doesn't work, try other safe things like some foods, like rub some of her milk on all the pups.  Just try to get them to smell alike.  Check to see if he has a cleft pallet also.  She may be hearing something you are not.
nancy