What would cause a mother dog to push all her puppies away?

Question

She had 8 & all of them have died except 1.
They're not mine I'm asking for someone else...she has had pups before when she belonged to someone else but we don't know the outcome. We're not sure if she did the say thing with her other litter.

Answer 1

Many animals can sense that there is something wrong with their babies. So, if they think that there is a problem with one or all of the pups they will push them away to save milk for the ones that have a better chance at survival. It's an instinctual thing. Most often a dog or cat will push away the runt because the runt has lesser of a chance of survival.

Understand that sometimes a dog will not take to mothering. This even occurs in human beings.

So, the pups could have died from lack of nutrition b/c the mother refused to let them suckle.

Also the mother dog may not be producing milk, OR there is something terribly wrong with her milk and it caused the pups to die.

So I would guess that the pups had something wrong with them or the mother had something wrong with her or her milk.

If your friend's dog will not nurse the last remaining puppy the best thing to do is to go to Petsmart or Pet co. and purchase some puppy formula and a bottle and hand feed it. This will only work if the problem lies somewhere with the mother dog, but in my opinion, it's the only chance the last little guy has.

Answer 2

Sometimes animals reject whole litters. Sometimes the runt is pushed away or unable to compete with the others for milk, but this is a natural selection process to eliminate the weakest offspring. Same goes for a sickly puppy.

I had a coworker whose cat had kittens and dropped them off a ledge one at a time, killing all but one. Some wild animals will reject their young if they've been handled by humans.

As far as domestic animals go, I don't think there is a "cause" for rejecting an entire litter. I have heard first time mothers may do this and be fine with subsequent litters.

Answer 3

there are many reasons why a dam will push her pups away. Take the remaining one to the vet and they will be able to help you properly care for it. It will probably have to be feed every hour as it is so small. Also since you said that the dam isn't your, if I were you I would ask if she's ever done this with previous litters and if so stongly suggest that she be spayed. Good luck in keeping the remaining puppy alive.

Answer 4

She might just be a 'bad mom' my moth-inlaws dog does the same thing. You should give the puppys to vet or animal clinic so they can all be bottle fed and get your dog fixed so this doesnt happen again. Usualy a dog only does that if her pupy is sick but doing it twice with a whole litter says that she just isnt cut out to be a mom.

Answer 5

Usually a dog will push a puppy away if there is something wrong with it & it doesn't want it around the other puppies. I have never heard of a whole litter being pushed away though.

Answer 6

She is probably depressed. Many female dogs will go through this when they have pups. You should have gotten a large box with blankets and put the puppies in it. Also you needed to go get puppy formula and feed those puppies yourself. I guess its too late now. 8 deaths could have been prevented.

Answer 7

Some dogs just aren't good mothers, kind of like some human mothers can do aweful things to their children.

Answer 8

some dogs just dont know how to be mothers and thats when the humans need to step in immediatly and take over. its sad, but it happens.

Answer 9

mother dogs do this when her puppies are ill.
It as if she knows that they are ill and that they wil not survive
so she kills them herself.....other animals eat their ill offspring......this is the reason for that popular quote that says nature is wise.......
its pretty sad because we as humans would not do such a thing to our children no matter how ill they can be.

Answer 10

Maybe Post Pardom Depression. Animals can get it too.