# My breeder just had a dam deliver 12 puppies



## cowpony (Dec 30, 2009)

Wow. That's a lot of puppies! How are they all doing? 

It's a fine line about posting litter information. PF isn't intended to be a listing service for direct buying/selling of puppies. However, in general we are happy to hear about good breeders who are doing things the correct way.


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## Carla (Feb 4, 2021)

Thanks for replying to my inquiry. The number of pups really surprised me as well! I don't know exactly how they're doing, as the breeder didn't say. But she sent me a photo and didn't mention any problems, so I assume they're all fine; and otherwise, I'm sure he wouldn't be mentioning the extras on her website as available. They're just a day or two old at this point and I haven't spoken with her yet, only exchanged emails.

Without mentioning names, I'll share a couple of photos. They are standards, and both parents are silvers, I think. The dam is the offspring of two grand champions. The pups will be silvers, with a possible blue or two amongst them. They're predicted to have a moderate drive for performance and the intelligence for becoming service/therapy dogs. Both dam and sire are affectionate and love their people.

I'm just wondering-- how is the dam going to be able to feed them all? Obviously, I don't understand much about that, and I'm curious, as I doubt she'd have 12 nipples.


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## TeamHellhound (Feb 5, 2021)

The puppy I'm getting is one of eleven. To make matters more fun, the bitch developed mastitis within just a day or two of whelping, so the breeder and some helpers were bottle feeding pretty much around the clock for a week. That said, most bitches seem to do okay feeding that many, although sometimes supplemental feeding is necessary, or at least appreciated.


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## Carla (Feb 4, 2021)

Oh, how difficult! Poor Mama dog, and poor harried caregivers-- although it has to be at least a little bit fun to handle these tiny puppies. I was googling this topic and read that a standard poodle named Crystal gave birth to a litter of 16 in 2014. Eleven or twelve strikes me as amazing enough. I wonder if the dam of a large litter can "count" the number and notice if one is missing!


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## Johanna (Jun 21, 2017)

The one time I had a huge litter I supplemented the mama with puppy formula. It's exhausting work, I can tell you! You have to make up puppy formula and bottle-feed the smaller ones every 3 hours.


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## Charlie's Person (Dec 9, 2018)

Our boy was an "unexpected" runt in a large litter. I wanted a pet, and he was much smaller and so scrawny compared to the other pups. BEWARE! Here he is at 85 pounds and nearly 30 inches at the shoulder.









Sent from my SM-G973W using Tapatalk


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## Dogs4Life (May 27, 2018)

Carla said:


> Thanks for replying to my inquiry. The number of pups really surprised me as well! I don't know exactly how they're doing, as the breeder didn't say. But she sent me a photo and didn't mention any problems, so I assume they're all fine; and otherwise, I'm sure he wouldn't be mentioning the extras on her website as available. They're just a day or two old at this point and I haven't spoken with her yet, only exchanged emails.
> 
> Without mentioning names, I'll share a couple of photos. They are standards, and both parents are silvers, I think. The dam is the offspring of two grand champions. The pups will be silvers, with a possible blue or two amongst them. They're predicted to have a moderate drive for performance and the intelligence for becoming service/therapy dogs. Both dam and sire are affectionate and love their people.
> 
> I'm just wondering-- how is the dam going to be able to feed them all? Obviously, I don't understand much about that, and I'm curious, as I doubt she'd have 12 nipples.


Such beautiful puppies! Can't wait to see pictures of your pup when you get him or her.  I've never had a dog as large as a standard before, but the idea of getting one is certainly growing on me the longer I am on this forum!


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## Carla (Feb 4, 2021)

Johanna said:


> The one time I had a huge litter I supplemented the mama with puppy formula. It's exhausting work, I can tell you! You have to make up puppy formula and bottle-feed the smaller ones every 3 hours.


Oh my goodness!


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## Jilly SummerSunset (Sep 16, 2020)

SPOO's can have large litters. My girl had 10 pups. We lost 3. Litter size is related to how many breeding ties, on how many days, on what days are the most fertile of the heat, ... SPOO's can produce large litters. They don't think about it. They just manage it. Sometimes the time between ties, for example: Mating day with ties each date, day 8, 10, 13, 15, will likely produce very large litter if sperm count and eggs conceive each time. Puppies at the 8th day day of heat will be in oven longer than day 15. The end conceived pups may have development issues and not survive after birth. Personally, I've been a breeding on 2 days between day 10 and 13. Only two ties. Nice, healthy litter but that doesn't mean a small litter either. I bred GSDs before 1 litter of SPOOs. My GSD litter sizes were 7, 6, 5, 7. Depends. Not guaranteed. I didn't talk techical terms and only spoke by example for simplicity. 😁


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