My bulldog ate her puppy. - Page 1

My bulldog ate her puppy. Can anybody explain to me why that is. She had a litter of 8, this is her first litter. She was doing really good cleaning them off and eating the placenta like she's suppose to. About 3 hours go by and I head to bed, and there are still 8 puppies in her bedding. I come back out of my bedroom about 10 minutes later to find only 7 puppies. I searched everywhere, and found nothing. I called a Vet Tech friend of mine, she says they just do that. Couldn't give me an explanation as to why, and I want to know if I should be worried. All the puppies seemed to be healthy, they all were drinking the milk, and they were all very mobile and vocal. Is this a common thing for bulldogs? Should I take the other puppies away? Is my dog dangerous, I have a 6 year old son and I don't want her attacking him. She has never shown any type of actions like this before, generally she is a very sweet, calm loving bulldog. I need to know if i should be concerned.

How old is she?

Really? You bred your dog and whelped a litter and are only now researching?

Also, you have to prevent her from eating any more!!  Can you supervise her or possibly muzzle her?  Is she stressed out?  Anyone new in the house or anything bothering her?  Maybe the pup was fading anyway, or she sensed this was a weak pup, and so she ate it to keep her nest clean?  I don't think it will effect anything else as far as your kids go.  Your dog has all sorts of hormones going on right now, if she's normall fine with the kids this doesn't matter, but be careful with them going near her when she has the pups.

I'm not a breeder but these are just my ideas, and I would be concerned about the remaining pups.  I also would not breed her again.  Make sure the pups all stay warm and get a heatlamp if you have to.  It is a genetic problem with some dogs, abnormal maternal instincts.

And just FYI, Bulldog refers to the "English" Bulldog (they are just called Bulldogs), and they almost always get c-sections, do you mean American Bulldog or Olde English Buldogge?

NO!  She isnt dangerous to your son because she ate a puppy. This dog probably knows alot more about raisng a litter of pups than you do.

Was this a hit and run post?  I want to know how old the bitch is and if the other pups are ok.

No muzzle please - she´ll be nervous especially if she is not used to muzzle,she needs to clean the puppies and by limping them she stimulates them to pee and so on.
She probably felt there´s something wrong with the puppy.