Can a litter of puppies have more than one father?
I’m not sure when I first heard about a litter of puppies having more than one father, but I do recall hearing that it is a true statement…A litter of puppies can most definitely have more than one father.
Why was I thinking about this? Well, last Saturday at the pet adoption I saw two puppies at the Cuddly Canines booth that looked totally different, but were said to be siblings. Here’s a picture:
Chow Chow Labrador Retriever Mix
Koa and Sequoia
Picture from Cuddly Canines Website
Here are some photos I took at the Orange County Super Pet Adoption:
These precious baby boys were born around June 1st to what appears to be a Chow-Lab combo. They are indeed brothers, although they look nothing alike. Koa looks like he just hopped out of the clothes dryer after a quick spin through the fluff cycle, and Sequoia has beautiful short flaming red hair! Both boys are sweet & cuddly.
By the way, I looked today and these two are still up for adoption. If you’d like to adopt one or both puppies go to the Cuddly Canines website and fill out an application.
Now I’m going to go out on a limb here, but I think these two puppies may have had different fathers.
Another Multiple Father Example
Here’s a picture of a litter of puppies we rescued from the Riverside Shelter a couple years ago:
These puppies were German Shepherd mix, but two of them looked more like Labrador Retriever then German Shepherd. Once again I think there were multiple fathers involved with this litter. DNA test anyone?
Answers From Yahoo Answers
I read this on the Yahoo Answers site and also on many other sites across the internet:
A female dog can have as many different fathers for her puppies that bred with her. Dogs can release multiple eggs and they can be fertilized by whichever dog’s semen is present. If more than one male bred her, that’s how many fathers the puppies can have. the main reason everyone gets a fair shot at the eggs is because the semen wait a day or two before fertilizing the eggs.
When a dog ovulates the eggs are not totally mature. They finish maturing as they enter into the uterine horns. Then whatever dog’s semen is present releases from the uterine lining and heads for the eggs.
Now one single puppy cannot have two different fathers. Each puppy will get half of it’s DNA makeup from Mom and one Father, but since often dogs have litters it’s possible for two puppies from the same litter to have 2 different sires.
Have you had or seen any litters of puppies with multiple fathers? If you have some stories or photographs please send them to me. I’d love to post them to my blog.
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CCI actually uses two sires sometimes, I believe with new studs, they use as back up studs then do DNA tests on the pups before they go to raiser homes.
@Coreena, that’s very interesting. So if I’m reading correctly then it’s possible for a CCI litter to have multiple fathers.
Colby, yep, a CCI litter may have two fathers. I don’t know all the specifics, but I do know that several litters have pups from two different studs.
I have a female lab, I kept her up in the pen and was not going to breed her this time. I have a black male lab which I always breed her with and I have a couple of mix males her also, however my little gilr let her out of the pen while I was gone and I did not see the conception, but all the puupies look like pure labs, except for one and he looks like one but he is black with more than normal white on his forehead and chest, I know I can’t register them, but I was wondering is this a case of two fathers?
It sounds like you may have two fathers in the litter. Although I have seen some purebred black Labrador Retrievers with some white spotting usually on the chest. From the AKC Standard:
“The Labrador Retriever coat colors are black, yellow and chocolate. Any other color or a combination of colors is a disqualification. A small white spot on the chest is permissible, but not desirable…”
I’m assuming neither of your purebreds would be carrying genes that would cause white markings on the forehead.
If you have some pictures of the litter I could post a follow-up article to this post.
You can have as many fathers as eggs. It’s rare but happens with people, too. Fraternal twins (which litters of puppies kind of are) have had different dads before. Maybe you need a biology refresher?
This may not necessarily be a case of multiple fathers, but just genetics at work. Think of puppies as fraternal twins and especially so when they are mix breeds. Just because they don’t all look like a near-perfect cross of two breeds does not mean there’s another set of DNA involved. For instance, let’s look at Koa and Sequoia. Koa has the coat and tongue of a Chow, but if you look closely, you can see that he has a muzzle that more closely resembles the muzzle of a Labrador. Sequoia has a coat closer to that of a Lab, but the shape of his head (which is sort of dome-y) and muzzle look more like a Chow’s. I’d also be willing to bet that he’s got some blue splotches on his tongue, if his tongue isn’t completely blue. Genetics are pretty much a lottery when you cross two breeds like this. It’s not always a matter of BB, Bb and bb.
Last May I bred my female maltese with my younger daughter’s male maltese. I thought the breeding period was over as she hadn’t allowed any interaction for 2 or 3 days. My older daughter came to visit and brought her male yorkie. You can guess what happened.
I have a photo, not sure how to post here. The litter consists of 3 maltese and 1 morkie. They are currently three weeks old and adorable. I’ve been really surprised that everyone tells me they have never heard of this before. I grew up with my dad breeding hunting dogs and I guess I’ve always known there could be multiple fathers for a litter of puppies.
@Leslie, that’s very interesting. I like the way it sounds…a Morkie. We’d love to see pictures of your Morkie. You can email me attachments at ckmorita [at] puppyintraining [dot] com.
Most people I know really haven’t heard of a litter of puppies having multiple fathers. I probably wouldn’t have heard about it had I not raised that litter of German Shepherd puppies.
I have a pure Maltese dog, but I was waiting to breed her with other Maltese.. But one day I took her out and my neighbors Chihuahua was rounding her because she was in the breeding period I never let that dog near my Maltese, he was even sleeping outside my kitchen door with no food and no water. My dad one day let the door open and the Chihuahua went inside and my dad did not notice, I came 10 min later and found the Chihuahua on top of my dog, lol. Same day I took her to breed her with the Maltese male, today she gave birth to 2 different dog, one completely white and the other looks like my neighbors Chihuahua, Is this a case of two different fathers? I will post a picture of how the dogs look, completely different. I was very skeptical about this DNA case. But now I believe it 100%
Hi, I have a Question.
How many will have a female Labrador litter when crossed with a German Shepherd?
Hi, I have a Question.
How many will have a female Labrador litter when crossed with a German Shepherd? Kindly respond ASAP
@Viviana, your Maltese’s puppies sound like a case of two different fathers. We’d love to see some pictures of the litter. Please send us a link to the images when you have a chance. Or, if you’d like email me the pictures at ckmorita [at] puppyintraining [dot] com and I’ll post them to one of our pages here on the Puppy In Training website.
@George B, I’m not sure I understand your question. Are you wondering about the size of a litter when crossing a Labrador Retriever and a German Shepherd. As far as I know you can’t determine exactly how many puppies will be in a litter. I believe there are many factors determining litter size including genetics, nutrition, and environment just to name a few. If you want to read more about litter sizes in dogs then check out this article:
http://www.royalcanin.us/library/littersizeindogs.aspx
I have a pitbull, shitzu mix her name is Lola. I also have a pitbull, boxer mix named Diesel. My uncle has a pure bred rottweiler named tito and he was staying with us at the time lola was in heat. Diesel hooked up with lola twice and tito had gotten hooked once. Lola had her puppies today and the first two puppies look exactly like diesel almost identical, but the third looks like a purebred rottweiler obviously its not a purebred but looks just like one. now i’m not sure if she is all done having puppies yet but when she is i will post pictures of Lola, Diesel, Tito, and all the puppies so you can see for your self. Only problem is i’m not sure how to post the pics so if somebody can send a link to my email i can upload them.
Thanks,
Gene
@Gene, it sounds like an interesting litter thanks for sharing with us. If you would like to share pictures then please send us an email at ckmorita [at] puppyintraining [dot] com.
Please help we have just paid for our Pedigree Lab bitch to be sired by a pedigree lab. they were tied on both two occasions, two consecutive days. (yesterday and day before) We brought herl home today and next doors collie bit through his kennel and jumed on her…before we could stop them they were tied together. We wanted to breed the labs to sell on- what can we do?
@Hortus, unfortunately I’m not to sure there is much you can do now. I would talk to your veterinarian or an experienced breeder about any possible actions you might be able to take.
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we adopted a puppy that we were told was lab and bull mastiff, he looks like a husky mix. There were only 3 in his litter and 2 have short sleek fur while the one I got looks like a fluffy cotton ball. I got the puppy with the light eyebrows.
My border collie ran away while she was in heat and im in an area with tons of strays. Two months later she gave birth to 10 pups. 2 looked Border Collie/ Pit Bulls 4 looked like german shepherds and 4 looked like pure border collies. is it possible there could be 3 dads to this litter? I dont know how to put pics on
@TayTay, I’d check with a veterinarian to see if it’s possible to have 3 dads in one litter. However, if I were to guess I’d say that yes, it probably is possible to have 3 dads in one litter.
I just adopted a puppy her siblings look like they were mixed with mabey a huskey however she doesnt and I found she look idenitcal and really mena indentical to the back lab puppy picture that i found online. just thought I would share as I found this anwer paticularly helpful with my couriosity. Thanks
My friends dog had puppies and some came out black and white, one with short hair and a curled tail and the rest with long curly hair and a hanging tail.
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