Today I helped my 2 year old bitch deliver 10 puppies. This is her first litter and I did expect a large one at that. Unforunately, two of the pups she delivered were stillborn and could not be revived after draining the fluid from their mouths and vigorously rubbing them. Otherwise, the rest are healthy and Heidi is taking very good care of them.
What I found to be extremely curious is the fact she had delivered ten females and absolutely no males. I had expected during the times of delivery that she might get maybe one or two males but was surprised when she didn't. Having such a large litter, I figured odds of that happening have got to be pretty hefty. Smaller litters(6 pups or less), I would expect it, but not in this case. Has this happened to anyone whose had large same sex litters? I'm just curious because this seems so unusual to me.
Thanks,
Kristina
Dan Oas Webboard User Reg: 09-21-2004
Posts: 190
Loc: MI
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I'm not a breeder, but recently met a couple, one of which said that there is an old wives tale that says :
"If the coupling occurs early in the heat cycle there will be mostly females,of late in the cycle more males."
And that in spite of trying to debunk that, they have found it so in their litters.
Can anyone of the many who may know better here comment?
I had never heard of this before, and now this post has reminded me to ask!
Ed Frawley Administrator Reg: 07-11-2001
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Dan - you are correct. This is an old wives tail and does not hold water. There is nothing a small breeder can do to control the sex of their litters. It may be possible with help from scientists and a lot of technical help.
Hearing the same tale, I was sceptical about this, and conversed with a reproduction specialist who says, "Yes...and no, there was a study done (on goats), that showed evidence to support this, but the marginal difference was less than one percent." Now, if you have a ten 10-pup litters, it appears it could affect one pup .
Snicker- and according to the world famous Roald Dahl, when breeding cattle, if you face the bull to the east you get one sex, face him to the west you get the other. Worked every time according to his book.
But then again even though he said it was an autobiography I'm not so sure he didn't spice it up a bit :-)
I love that picture w/the care bear!Looks like one Bear holding another <img src="http://www.leerburg.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />
Ok Back to the topic, I have a question,is it true if you only do 1 tie instead of 3 ,you get a smaller litter?
Just curious.
As the question was put, no, not true. Timing and fertility rates are large factors, one tie is potentially sufficient to produce a sizeable litter. Multiple ties however, may increase the number of pups.
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