mother dog killed her puppies

[Sal]

Hi,
A man we know unfortunatly, brought a bitch a couple of years ago and she ate hers Anyway the stupid idiot brought her for breeding,he has bred from her twice both times she has killed the pups and ate them,and the stupid fool has just had the bitch mated again
This bitch suffered with eclampsia and i think that can be a factor,she should be taken to the vets to make sure she's ok,and there isn't an underlying problem.
Somebody else maybe along with some better advice.

[amandag]

Thanks ,will ask the lady when i see her tommorow to see if she can find out anymore info,

[pod]

Yes, I've had the same experience. The one and only Akita litter I bred, the dam had eclampsia a few days after whelping and became aggressive with the pups. No harm was done, I caught it in time and she went back to the litter after recovery, with no more problems.

She was never bred from again. It can be a recurring condition.

[leo]

I have heard of this before it could be a few things as to why the bitch felt she had to do this sort of thing. One theory is that they are actually trying to protect the pups (by putting them back inside where they'll be safe!) from some perceived danger.
If this was a first litter, the bitch may not have been fully aware of what was happening; "maternal instinct" does occasionally totally fail to function.
There are undoubtedly other reasons.

Another reason is happens that mothers will kill (or kill and eat) babies because the mother feels that baby is defective with little chance of survival.
They only eat to get rid of the pup so it dosn't decay in the den also the mothers gets extra nutrtion from the the pup.
A human should be with the mother of a whelping bitch to help with the process and to remove any still born pups because she could eat the dead pups as well.

[Inca]

a mum can also kill her puppies if she is afraid she would rather kill them than let preditors get them ...i have also heard of bitches who become unwell pos eclampsia harm them as well if she feels she has milk for them

[Minihaha]

It is something that can happen. Bitches can do this because they are scared and insecure while whelping, have eclampsia, or sometimes when a bitch is chewing through the the umbilical cord to separate the puppy from the placenta she can be over zealous and eat the lot. I know of a Cocker bitch who ate one of her puppies while cleaning it up.

[JoedeeUK]

There was a bitch on one of the Pet Rescue programs that was taken into the"care"of the RSPCA, she was an emaciated Great dane bitch, she gave bitch to a litter shortly after the RSPCA got her & had I think 7 puppies. The bitch was clearly distressed at being in the kennels as she was hyperactive & weeing & pooing all over the kennel before the puppies were born.

She whelped the litter & was obviously more distressed as there were other bitches in the same small block of kennels that she could both hear & see

The staff put a curtain over the front of her indoor kennel mesh door & she was left alone over night

Whebn the staff returned there was a seen of devastation & two of the puppies were missing, they called in a local Guide Dog for The Blind breeder who agreed with the staff that the puppies had been stolen as she(the GDB breeder)had never had a bitch kill & eat her puppies. so they left her again the next night & yes two more puppies disappeared & the bich had wrecked her kennel again. The vet was then called & as they found blood etc in the kennels the light finally dawned that yes the bitch had killed her puppies. The surviving puppies were taken from her & hand reared

If this had been anyone other than the RSPCA they(the RSPCA)would no doubt have taken the breeder to court. Why they did not put the puppies to sleep after they were born as they looked very poor sick puppies

In the wild when stressed animal mothers often kill & eat their young

[crazycockers]

Originally Posted by pod

Yes, I've had the same experience. The one and only Akita litter I bred, the dam had eclampsia a few days after whelping and became aggressive with the pups. No harm was done, I caught it in time and she went back to the litter after recovery, with no more problems.

She was never bred from again. It can be a recurring condition.

My Rosie had eclampsia with her first litter, a really bad case of it too, spent two days in the vets, in fact she almost died from it, thankfully she didn't get it again with her two following litters, but we did gt her blood checked twice a week and gave her collo cal D every day with her next litters.......thankfully she never attempted to harm her babies, but it was very distressful. The medication she was put on meant she couldn't feed her pups from 3 weeks onwards, luckily I had started weaning them around 2.1/2 weeks old, so they all did well and survived.

I think though, sometimes too much human intervention can upset mum and cause her to kill her babies, also stress and worry.

I have also heard of a cocker bitch that got a bit carried away when eating the placenta and ate the whole pup , thankfully though it's not happened to me.

[Flipper]

Not much to add, there are a variety of reasons why they might kill the pups, too young, too old and all of the above....in support of dogs with eclampsia though Ive personally worked with more than I can remember and eating or attempting to eat the pups was not a common thing with them.