Sorry, didn't finish the last new post - I hit the wrong key! My friends, who own the bitch, a very high-drive German import(Yoschy daughter, linebred on Uwe Kirschental), and I have never dealt with this problem. She whelped six large healthy pups. Her owners left her in the whelping box nursing the pups and went to bed. Two hours later they checked in on her and she had killed all of them and eaten three. This is her first litter - she was imported about six months ago and seems to have bonded well with her handler/owner. My question - is this something likely to happen again or is it "new-mother" nerves? I know it's not unheard of but I was wondering if someone out there had any similar experience and if so, how they handled it.

It is not so uncommon for new mothers ho are nervy by nature. I am sure Ed and a few others can comment on this but since I am working on puppy research with several family owned and raised dogs it is something I have witnessed a few times and it seems the reasons vary. so i will toss in my .02 for what it is worth. All the families are very cognizant about providing the best private environment and conditions for the bitch to whelp but still on occasion it has happened on a few first litters.

The nervy dog seemed to become confused that she could not “hide” her puppies better so in order to “protect” them she eats them. It is kind of neurosis where the maternal instinct collides with her environment. She may start licking them too much making one raw and/or carries the puppies so much she accidentally kills it and then instinctively trying to keep the den clean eat the puppy.

Another common case is the mother not knowing when to stop chewing at the navel. So she goes to far and kills the puppy.

I am sure others can add to this.

Wish I had advice - but I don't. One of my rescues goes back to Uwe - and when I spoke with the original owner of my dog I was told she had several litters, they said she had no interest in any of them, and all except one of the pups either died or she killed them - only 1 lived and was put down with HD at the age of one. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />

Don't breed this bitch again.

There is something wrong with a bitch that kills all her pups. Accidents can happen, or sometimes a bitch will cull one or two pups for who knows what reason. . .but to kill the whole litter is nutzo.

Breed bitches that are good mothers. I think there was this guy named Max von Stephanitz that had a good deal to say about that.

Mr Vc Could you please add on to your last post,as I've had a similar exp 10yrs ago Thank U

There isn't much to add. I don't have a clue why this happens, but a dog that is a bad mother is an instant NO BREED in my opinion. There is something wrong with them.

It usually says something about the bitches temperament when they do this, maybe like Dennis mentioned it has to do with bad nerves.

Now, we had an older Czech bitch that had been bred twice without problem and had a litter of 9 pups. After whelping the 6th pup she picked him up and dropped him off out of the whelping area and left him there. We put him back, tried to get her to lick him and she just ignored him. After finishing the rest of the litter she picked him up and took him out into her yard and tried to bury him. We stopped her and took the pup back. . .then she bit him through the head and killed him.

No idea why she culled this pup, but we watched her very close after that. . .she was a great mother to the rest of the litter. There have been a few dogs that did this. Funny stuff, I like to think she knew something that we didn't.

I think this weird culling of one or two pups is ok as long as the bitch is good with the rest of the pups, but killing a whole litter is bad news.

Funny this should come up. I just had a litter last night. Her first, 7 puppies all fine. Took her outside for a walk since the last one was taking a little bit, little over an hour. Took a towel in case she dropped it, which she ended up doing. Thought she was just chewing the cord off, getting ready to pick it up, and boom gone. She ate it. We're thinking it was stillborn, there was no noise nothing from the pup. But since it was gone so quickly, we'll never know. All the other 7 are fine, and she is excellent with them. Granted I was a little paranoid last night after this, but it appears she picked up on something being wrong and took care of it.

http://www.leerburg.com/cgi-bin/UBB/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=6;t=000108

This topic has been gone over before. You may want to go and read some of the older replies.

I agree with the others here. I would spay and place her if she were mine. I see no reason to 'try again'...

My best friends doberman bitch chewed her pups to snot at 4 1/2 weeks. Luckily she didn't kill any but they all had to go on antibiotics and be weaned. He bred her again, and she did the same thing the second time. After that, he finally decided to spay her. I wouldn't have given her the second chance.

Imagine that being your wonderful memories of mom...

This was also discussed on the GSD webring not too long ago and the German showline dog in question's dam had also done this - the original poster deleted all references to the dog in question once that came out and the topic is no longer viewable as they moved to a new server. I wonder how often this runs in some lines? Have people seen this happening? I don't imagine it is talked about very much.

I am closing this thread. I assume the female had a nice quiet place to have her babies and no one is coming in to bother her. Any bitch that kills her babies has squirles in her head. Frnakly I would not feed this bitch. Spay her - shoot her - whatever but a female that kills her litter is nuts and anyone who knows she does it and re-breeds her is not a respectable breeder. There is nothing left to discuss on this.