8-year-old Siberian Husky was eating her remaining puppies
I own an 8-year-old Siberian Husky. She recently gave birth to three puppies, but one died soon after birth. When I went to check on her again, she was eating her remaining puppies. I do not understand why she would do this. It was her first time giving birth; would this behavior have anything to do with her age? I did not realize dogs would eat their young. This upsets me very much because she always has been a very friendly dog. We do have another dog; maybe this has something to do with it. I have children and am concerned that maybe she is going through some changes at this age I should be aware of. Please let me know if this is abnormal for a dog.
What a sad experience! With such a small litter, and one puppy dead soon after birth, I am suspicious about the health of the puppies to begin with. Eight is very late for having a first (or any!) litter of puppies. Perhaps there was something terribly wrong with all of them, which your dog sensed, and she "culled" her litter. In nature dogs do reject or even occasionally kill abnormal offspring. Another possibility could be that inexperience, possibly combined with possessive behavior, caused your dog to eat the puppies. This is known as displacement behavior—it happens when dogs that are under duress or that are already excited by other stimuli (in this case the presence of the other dog) redirect energy that might have been expressed directly (such as barking at the other dog) into alternate behaviors that often make no sense (eating the puppies). In the presence of other dogs, highly dominant dogs often devour anything perceived as edible to get it before one of the other dogs does; stress may have caused your dog's new and unfamiliar maternal protective feelings to be displaced into food guarding. Perhaps all of the related birth smells (blood, afterbirth, etc.) combined with possessiveness, inexperience and one dead puppy caused her wires to cross. Despite the horror you must have felt, your dog can't be held "accountable" for her behavior. I would consider her behavior the result of confusion rather than cruelty. If you are not noticing abnormal behavior in any other areas, this incident probably isn't indicative of an overall mental breakdown, but I would discuss what happened with your vet and carefully consider the potential for a second tragedy before considering breeding this dog again.
People who viewed '8-year-old Siberian Husky was eating her remaining puppies' also found interest in following articles . . .
- English Springer Spaniel diagnosed with obsessive compulsive disorder by my vet
- Common Puppy Behavior: Barking, Chewing, Jumping And Puppy Training
- Training And Caring For Puppies
- My puppy is loosing teeth
- Bull Mastiff obsessed with the cats, following them everywhere and whining
- what the proper age is for starting training and what steps we need to follow
- Dachshund/Chihuahua mix constant beggar and will not leave the kitchen if you are preparing food.
- Weimaraner (Dustie) calm during most of the day, but without a moment's notice, she goes into these biting and jumping spells
- Housebreaking puppies involves owners getting up out of bed at all hours of the night?
- Why do dogs wag their tails?
Category: