Placing a dog on a heating pad can dehydrate the pup quickly, heating the room, a hot water bottle or your stomach would be a better alternative in a pup who you do not think is nursing enough. When a pup becomes dehydrated the sucking reflex is one of the first things to go. If the pup's temp. drops under say 94 degrees the mom will not nurse it. Since he has no litter mates, he really needs mom to stay with him or needs to be kept in a very warm room with adequate humidity.
I would start giving him a lactate ringer's solution (preferable) or pedialyte, but only when his body temperature is at least 94 degrees and monitoring nursing. If his sucking reflex is not strong enough to nurse you may have to bottle feed or tube feed with a formula. There are many good homemade formulas just be sure and choose one that has equal amounts of "milk" and water. His intake should be about 1 cc per ounce of body weight every 3 hours around the clock. I raise birds so sometimes I'm feeding a rejected baby smaller than the tip of your pinky every 1/2 hour around the clock, but they do live and it's always worth the extra effort.
The twitching is a good sign.
Do you know any bird breeders - they would probably have an extra incubator you could borrow?
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