Want to breed??

So you've decided you want to start breeding.  With so many

designer breeds of dogs out there, why not, surely there's

money to be made??

Plus it's so easy, you get a male and a female, put them

together and you have puppies.  Mum does all the hard

work for you, so after a vacc you can sell them, and it's

all over in no time.  Right??

WRONG!!!!

Even though it can be that easy, more then not it's not.

There's a lot you need to know before starting, and

even when you think you have all bases covered, some

new thing always pops up just to make it all more

intresting.

As for the money??  If you start right, with healthy parents,

and then do tests needed on the pups, you feed them all

properly, provide them with things they need while

with you, there really isn't a big profit, if any.  More then

not, you will end up in a loss.  The pups need the right start

to life, otherwise the new owners will have nothing but

problems with the health of the pup into it's adult age.  

And then you will have the owners to answer to when

they came back with the pup, or asking you to pay for their

vet bills.

And what will happen with the pups you can't sell?  Even when

there's a big demand for certain breeds or crosses, it

doesn't always mean they will sell.  So what will you do

when you have pups left and they are getting into the 4 mths

age group and over?  Will you keep trying or just surrender them

to the pound where possibly they will be put down?

But what about your precious girl is in season again and a friend

or neighbour has this gorgeous dog, why not let them have a

litter, the pups would be so great.  Maybe... but what if your

girl ends up having problems, maybe even doesn't survive?

Will you be happy now that you've let her mate?  Will it be worth

the risk to find out?  

If you've got your girl mated, do you know what to look for in

a normal whelping?  A slight color change can mean all is

fine and can mean big problems coming.  Will you know

the difference?  How long should it take to have all the pups out?

What is normal?  What are the signs of things going wrong?

These and many many more are things you should know about,

way before even thinking of what dogs you're going to try

with.

Below is my recent story of what happened to one of my girls.

I hope it opens your eyes to the breeding side of things,

and also give breeders some info regarding this rare condition.

MindiBown CudleMeQuik - CQ

Going over all the things now, I can see signs that I missed with poor CQ.  Few days before she went into labour she had dark poo.  I put that down to having hearts the day before.  Instead I should have looked into it further.

The day before her labour Cq slowed down a lot.  She was a big girl from having a big litter, and again, I just assumed she was too tired from it all.

As Cq went into labour on a Sunday night, she got tired,

and within an hour didn't move.  Her water broke and

still no moving from her.

I had already spoke to the vet twice on the phone,

and now decided it was past time to take her in.

The vet diagnosed her with Pregnancy Toxiema.  I had

never heard of it before.  In short, the pups drain mum's body

supplies so much that she ends up suffering from it.

Cq was put on a drip to try to detox her body, while I was

sent home.  A ceasar was performed earlier then anticipated due to her not improving, instead getting worse.  I was told the pups wouldn't survive basically as her blood would have gone through their supply giving them toxins.

I was very surprised when I received a call asking me to pick up

6 live pups.  Cq was still waking up, and was in a bad shape.

She had to stay the night on the drip.  Just an hour after

taking pups home, I got a call to say she passed away.

I took the pups home and started the 2 hr feeds and hourly

toileting of them.  I was not getting much sleep at all.  But

the pups were staying alive.  After 2 days, they started to

loose weight.  They also weren't eating much from the dripper.

On Wednesday I started to tube feed them as they weren't

getting enough food.  Giving them the amount needed was

constantly a testing time, at one stage they got too much

and were just passing it through without digesting it.

Giving them the runs, and making them loose more weight.

Then I finally figured out the right amount, but it was all too late.

On Thursday the first pup died in the morning.  By night

another 4 died.  I had one very willing pup wanting to live

and fighting hard.  But even that wasn't enough, on Friday

morning my last boy died.

I had spent the whole week fighting to keep these pups alive

and failed.  Why they all died is anyone's guess.  Maybe as

they didn't get any colostrum from mum, they were just too

weak to fight off normal germs.  Maybe the toxins got to them

and they never had a chance anyway.

In the end, I had lost my Cq, and all her pups.  A huge waste

of lives lost.  All for nothing.  The amount of time

I spent trying to keep the pups going, the many sleepless

nights, not to mention the money spent.  (over $1000)

Breeding is definitely not something to be taken lightly.

Have a good think before you mate your girl.  Even though

what happened to Cq is not a very common outcome,

it does happen, not to mention many other problems

that occur a lot more frequently.