I have a male american bull / bullmastiff mix and a female american staffordshire terrior. Unfortunately during my 2 week vacation he came into heat early and I am pretty sure I am going to be having a litter of puppies. The wuestion at hand is does anyone know if I need to seperate these two when the time comes, I will only seperate them if he is known to be aggressive towards the pups. Please let me know, any helpful tips would be appreciated.

It's always a good idea to keep mom in a quite safe place away from other animals and small children. Mother dogs can be very unpredictable when it comes to their puppies. Best of luck to you and the new mom.

You never ever keep other dogs in with a whelping bitch.

She may kill her puppies to protect them, attack the other dog, or the other dog may attack puppies.

Other dogs are not intrduced to the new puppies untill at the earliest 4 weeks of age if you have a mild tempered puppy loving dog.

How old is the mother and has she ever had puppies before? How was she with her other litters?

It is probably best to keep the male away from the new mom and her litter. If this is her first litter, and even if she has had litters before, you never know if she will be over protective of her puppies.

I've heard of mother dogs abandoning their new babies or killing and/or eating them, if they felt their puppies were in danger.

My opinion only, but I would seperate them prior to the birthing. You should keep the new mom in a less traveled area of your house so there is not so much traffic to disturb her and the babies.

Wow, they will really be a mixture of breeds, I thought mine were mixed, both parents were purebreds of different breeds. Do you have good homes lined up for the puppies?

Be careful when placing them that they don't fall in the wrong hands. Good luck.

Basset_Lover

my female is 1 year old the male is 7 years old and he is a very loving mild mannered dog, they are both outside dogs. I am thinking of getting a dog run (chain link) to keep her in when she has the pups. The female weighs about 50 lbs, and the male weighs about 160 lbs. The female is brindle and the male is a most handsome fawn. I am very anxious to see the pups, yes we are lining up the pups homes and they will only be given to home that I know are safe and that they will be well taken care of.

OMG, please tell me it is a typo. The female weighs just 50 pounds and the sire is over 160? I hope you are having a vet monitor the pregnancy closely. You do realize that due to the extreme size difference that having these puppies could kill your female?

Please monitor her closely. If she goes into labor and tries to have her puppies naturally, it could kill her, due to puppies that size being hung up in the birth canal.

I really hope that it was a typo and you did not mean the male was over 3 times the size of the female.

Now I am seriously worried for the health of your dog.

Basset_Lover

Our American Pit Bull Terrier "Mugsy" was bred to our Bull Mastiff "Rocky" when she was 5 years old. Her whelping pen was in the basement and my mother and I had to hand feed many of the puppies because "Mugsy" was like a deer caught in headlights. Her puppies were delivered by our Vet.

We had to move Mugsy and her new babies upstairs and set up her whelping area in one of our bathrooms so we could keep a close eye on her and her babies. Rocky would trot past the bathroom and pretend like the babies didn't even exist.

As soon as we we found out that Mugsy was expecting Rocky's babies my mom and I performed a marriage ceremony in the kitchen.

Rocky and Mugsy were a real love story. Rocky would bathe Mugsy from head to toe each and every day. He would never even look at another dog. When our family traveled and we had to board them, the kennel would put them together in their own private "suite" because they would cry until they were together.

The puppies grew to be strong and had such a wonderful temperment. They found homes all across the United States. People actually drove as far as Georgia to our home in Michigan to purchase their puppy. My mother kept 2 of the puppies and named them Lucy and Albert. They are 9 years old now.

Mugsy passed away this past February just 2 weeks shy of her 16th birthday and Rocky passed away 4 years ago at the age of 13.



***Edited By: mooshu on 7/15/2005 8:19:47 AM***
Reason: *

Beau and Angel were inseperable 24/7. HOWEVER, when the time came close for whelping, she was provided with her own room, with baby gates across to keep Beau out.

The first week or so she refused to leave her pups for anything more than a quick trip outside to "potty", always checking on Beau's location BEFORE she'd go out the door.

When Beau made the mistake of venturing too near the gates, she'd give him a growl or two just to make sure he KNEW it was no man's land for him.

She finally relented after 3-4 weeks and allowed him to approach the gates. Once the pups were in the play yard, the gates came down and she allowed him to come close to the sides of the play yard.

No matter how much she loved Beau, she was very protective of her pups and would NOT let him near them until they were old enough to torment him.

Please be aware that in addition to the dangers you have with your bicth having been bred at such a young age to a dog 3 times her size, if you put her outdoors, you will not be able to monitor her at all times as you need to AND any pup she has will also be at risk to the elements. New born pups are very susecptible to the extremes of heat and cold, not to mention rain.

.

***Edited By: PEXERT on 7/16/2005 1:55:38 AM***
Reason: .