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Whippet Litter Sizes

lalena said:
Noise said:
what's a walrus pup?
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its a description. some pups come out bloated, 'walrus-like', believed to be some kind of water retention (as ive been told it from other breeders) which affects the brain also, and that they invariably die as it cant be treated. no newborn pup ive seen is chubby to begin with, that comes once mum is feeding them. as an aside, that initial lack of podginess stage is when some breeders like to choose a rough pick of the litter, when they can see bone structure and shape. so a pup that comes out bloated may have this problem. swimmers on the other hand, if front legs are tied together to bring them into the correct position in mild cases, can be treated, but severe cases they might be internally affected (down to the flattened chest cavity?)

often you'll find a bitch knows when a pup isnt quite right, even if you cant tell yourself, so if a pup is being deliberately pushed out of the nest while the others are getting the best care, be warned.
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thanks for explaining, I never knew that
 
One of our girls was from a litter of 13! They all survived & all looked fairly equal, no obvious runts.
 
My bitch has never had pups but was a surrogate to a litter of 10 - the mother had to have a caesarian (which cost £500!) and she didn't bond with the pups, so Ivy looked after them, but obviously couldn't feed them! As far as I know they all survived.
 
My Oscar came from a litter of 10, and some of you may remember my friends gorgeous litter The little Gems.,

Katied got 2 gorgeous girls from that lovely litter of 10 too... :thumbsup:

Puppies23rdMarch11days034.jpg
 
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Janimal said:
Katied have you seen this.. :) :)
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yes janis, just drooling over your pic of gem and her babes, :wub: :wub:

Ruby and Star are 2/10,

they are both 19" tts and both bang on 12.2kgs which i would think is a good size.

Both are lovely gorgeous yet quite girls perfect in everyway :wub: :wub:

on the other hand we have THE ONE AND ONLY, Smokey Blue,

In his highly consentrated form (being 1/1) he has all the best bits, is mad as a hatter, and could probabily bark a st bernard under the table :clown: :lol: :lol:

he is also perfect in every single way :wub:
 
My Jess had a litter of 10, all 10 survived with no obvious runts. I did start the pups on solids a little earlier than i would have done if the litter had been smaller though and the pups were weaned by 51/2 weeks old.

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There is a breeder in wales who breeds whippets who constantly registers litters of 10's 12's and even 14's it must be a nightmare rearing that number of pups as i was pulling my hair out with the litter of ten by the time they were 6 weeks old lol. They were little devils waking me up at 4am for there breakfast and they fought each other like pitbulls....

I'm hoping to breed from vixen in the spring and i'm hoping for a small litter. 4 would be nice...
 
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mally said:
My Jess had a litter of 10, all 10 survived with no obvious runts. I did start the pups on solids a little earlier than i would have done if the litter had been smaller though and the pups were weaned by 51/2 weeks old.
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There is a breeder in wales who breeds whippets who constantly registers litters of 10's 12's and even 14's it must be a nightmare rearing that number of pups as i was pulling my hair out with the litter of ten by the time they were 6 weeks old lol. They were little devils waking me up at 4am for there breakfast and they fought each other like pitbulls....

I'm hoping to breed from vixen in the spring and i'm hoping for a small litter. 4 would be nice...
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sod THAT, 14?? 7 is enough of a handful :lol: wonder if theres anything breed related re stillbirths and/or runts? a couple i know with a staffy girl that gave birth to 10 pups, only the first 6 survived, the last 4 were all smaller, one with a cleft, but the last to emerge looked so very undeveloped, poor mite wasnt much bigger than a teabag, body tiny, but larger head. seen runts in a couple of other breeds, lab and collie, but they more than made up for it once solids were introduced.
 
Garry Comber said:
My dog WCRCh Terraquinn sired a litter of 9 :wub:3 months ago
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what a adorable litter, i hope they all find loving homes..they looks like a packet of humbugs with all those stripy faces

My peggy was from a litter of 10 and all survived, it was really hard to choose at 4 weeks when we went to see them...i think Bow was from a big litter of 11 and her sister had a approx the same in her litter last year..all healthy pups

i would love to experiance a litter in the future, but having such a big litter once they start to move around sounds like a nightmare but enjoyable at the same time
 
themetalchicken said:
Just wondering what people think qualifies as a big litter ... nine, ten, eleven, twelve ?? What's the biggest whippet litter anyone's come across? And if a bitch has a big litter is that likely to be a one off or is it possible/likely that two or more consecutive litters will be big? Oh, and are big litters more likely to include still born pups?
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A friend of mine had a bitch who gave birth to three litters in the course of her life. She was a teeny little thing. Her first litter was 10 pups, the second, 11 and the third 13!!! All the pups were healthy and she fed them without any help all and survived. Her daughters have all also had large (more than 8) litters.
 
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Mallyfield mentioned a litter of 14 in Wales from a breeder who has registered several large litters. There is also a Scottish litter listed on the Whippet Archives as having 14. No one here has claimed personal knowledge of litters of 14; we only know what their breeders registered with the kennel club
 
I've only ever bred one litter and that was this year, my girl had 11 and did everything herself, i never left alone

with them though as people spoke of pre-eclampsia and i was worried about it.
 
My dog (exported to Europe) sired this litter of 11. http://thewhippetarchives.net/details.php?id=143292

My bitches usually havd 6-7, which is a nice number. One litter had only 4, and that was the most enjoyable litter I had ever :) I was able to have them all running around the house by the time they were about 4 weeks and they were clean and so much fun.

I am sure that the number of eggs the bitch releases is very much hereditary, and the number of pups is naturally limited to the number of eggs. Unless there are some monozygotic twins.
 
Well, I guess my friend in Williamsport Pa., USA gets the record with her bitch Fair -- she whelped 15 (yes, that's right - FIFTEEN) on Dec 5, 2012 -- 2 died shortly after whelping, and 1 died 2 days later. The remaining dozen are alive and well.
 
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