Dam killing/eating her young - Page 4

I would not breed this female again either..   I had a friend with a dobe that ate her puppies..  and for some crazy reason.. she bred her again..  and then took a full month off work.. and literally sat in the whelping area constantly..  would muzzle the female for nursing..  and if she had to go do something..she would crate the female..  what a pain in the butt..   the mom dog never liked the pups even as they got older..    I also would NEVER breed a daughter of this dog.     

jody

Check out your female and make sure there is nothing wrong with her physically, she deserves to be healthy. Then, by all means, spay her. There are many, many other bitches out there who do NOT have this problem and are likely more worthy to contribute to the gene pool.

A client told me today that a dam will sometimes sit on, lay on, otherwise purposefully suffocate her puppies because she wants some of them to die - for reasons only the dam knows.  I thought that kind of suffocation occurred because the dam was simply not careful and that it was inadvertant.  I would love to hear opinions on that.

Dams laying on pups 'on purpose' - no, I don't think that happens.  Dogs either do something deliberately, or they don't.  As in, if she wanted to reject or kill her puppies she would push them away, bury them, or kill them outright.  Females lay on pups by accident - step on them or lay on them or roll over on them because it's a big litter and a pup is in the wrong place at the wrong time - box has no pig rails to protect them in case they happen to get behind the female - or female is just not paying attention (new mother, or big litter and mom is tired, etc).  I don't believe they do it "on purpose"- no.

molly

That makes much more sense - thanks, Molly. 

Agreed, now that you know what she is going to do - than if possible don't breed her again, it will likely lead to further heart ache. With first time mommies though, you just don't know ahead of time. We will often have some raw hamburger at ready to feed the mom directly after having pups. This does seem to help give the dam some extra protein and take away the craving for the "blood" that comes from the afterbirth - which dam's are supposed to eat. It gives the umbilical cord time to dry and mom is less likely to taste the "blood" when cleaning pups later.

We have heard of females killing off unhealthy pups on purpose, but most of the time it is inexperience of the dam, inappropriate whelping place, and sometimes strees brought on by a owner who is inexperienced and constantly handling puppies who don't need to be handled right away, unless there is a problem.

Just had to share this recent story.  A friend of mine who has been in Schutzhund longer than I've been alive received an emergency call regarding the full sister of her black GSD.  She had been there to help the bitch whelp her first litter of 11 puppies four days earlier.  When she gets there to help with the emergency she is flabbergasted.  They had the bitch and her puppies in the middle of the living room where anyone and everyone was milling around including several children.  These same anyones and everyones were also handling the puppies at will.  The owners couldn't figure out why the bitch kept carrying the pups behind the couch. 

Now that is normal behavior.  A good, normal bitch will try to move her puppies away from a stressful environment.  Poor thing was trying to find a dark, quiet place to take her babies to get them away from the circus going on around her.  If any bitch would be justified in eating her young, I think she would qualify.  Fortunately she is a stable girl.

My friend convinced them to set her up in a more friendly environment and to leave her and the pups alone.  She said the people are really nice, just stupid.  Said they were expecting only 4 pups.  She isn't sure where they got that idea.  The pups have excellent bloodlines but will be sold out as pets...sounds to me like they just wanted to bring in some extra cash but I don't know them so I guess I should not pass judgment.

Deb

Wow Deb,  sometimes common sense isn't so common.

Either something was wrong with the whole litter or she is a bad dog for breeding. I have seen this trait passed from mother to daughter.