Monday, August 22, 2011

Canine False Pregnancies

My neighbor told me when he worked in animal rescue there was a Great Dane with a false pregnancy. They set her up to nurse the newborn Doberman Pincher puppies and a Terrier puppy that had been rescued for whatever reason, without their lactating mothers. I had never heard of such a thing but did some research.

Interestingly, the phenomenon of non-pregnant bitches developing milk and actually lactating may have had some functional importance in evolution, when mature canine bitches (such as wolves) without puppies had to nurse orphaned litters in the wild.
-http://www.petwave.com

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