if i have 3 mating with my bitch who has silent seasons eg mon wed friday and she had puppies would the litter consist of maybe different sized puppies ? because of several matings took place? both dog and bitch were maidens but ties were successful

No, because it's normal for eggs to be released over the space of a few days, and will be fertilised only when ripe. They all implant at the same time, around the 21 day mark.

Just like birds will lay an egg each day until they have a clutch, then sit to hatch them. Even though the oldest egg will be perhaps a week or 10 days older than the youngest, they all hatch within 36 hours.

Oh thats very interesting , i too was worried about this and asked my vet and he said that puppies that were from the second mating were the 'runts' of the litter as they would be significantly smaller than those that were created from the first mating a few days earlier. Thanks for clarifying that JG.

> Just like birds will lay an egg each day until they have a clutch, then sit to hatch them. Even though the oldest egg will be perhaps a week or 10 days older than the youngest, they all hatch within 36 hours.<

Not the case with all birds. Budgies lay an egg every other day and they hatch in the same order  so you end up with babies which  are different sizes.
With regards to puppies I too have heard that puppies from a late mating are smaller but I don't have any experience of this myself.

> Just like birds will lay an egg each day until they have a clutch, then sit to hatch them. Even though the oldest egg will be perhaps a week or 10 days older than the youngest, they all hatch within 36 hours.

That is quite right with dogs and most birds.

Owls and quite a few others lay an egg every other day and the eggs are brooded right away and the chicks hatch every other day.

In a good year several will survive (the biggest/eldest gets food first), and in a poor year maybe only the eldest, and the younger weaker ones will starve and even be eaten.

Puppies are designed to be born all at once, so the fertilised eggs start to develop roughly at the same time.

In the wild the pair would mate as often as the female was receptive, but fertilisation would only occur over a short time.

>Owls and quite a few others lay an egg every other day and the eggs are brooded right away and the chicks hatch every other day.

I was thinking more of domestic poultry; my bantams would lay an egg each day for a fortnight or so then sit and brood the whole lot, and they all hatched at the same time.

We've only had 3 matings with a day in between each one once many years ago with a Boxer, and wouldn't do it again, when the litter arrived (C section) they looked as if it was two different litters, there were 7 puppies, 4 were "normal" and 3 looked as if they weren't quite ready to be born, eg their heads didn't have much hair and they were smaller, but certainly not runts.  They all survived and the 3 smaller ones did catch up. Since then we've had a max of 2 matings.

We've just had a litter from 3 matings, fri, sat, mon, and they are evenly sized.

> We've just had a litter from 3 matings, fri, sat, mon, and they are evenly sized.

I've had a bitch mate over a period of 7 days, with no difference in pups when born.

My bitch was mated over 6 days and she's due on Wed, so I'll let you know what happens

We've had litters of uneven sizes (sometimes quite noticeable) from a single mating, I think it's down to individuals, possibly place in the womb and quality of placenta rather than timing, as I believe they all implant together.

> We've had litters of uneven sizes (sometimes quite noticeable) from a single mating, I think it's down to individuals, possibly place in the womb and quality of placenta rather than timing, as I believe they all implant together. <IMG class=qButton title="Quote selected text" alt="Quote selected text" src="/images/mi_quote.gif" width=20 height=10>

Totally agree with this theory.

Ditto,

It wasn't the size of the 3 smaller puppies that concerned us it was the fact that they looked as if they weren't quite ready to be born, as I said before hardly any hair on heads etc.  Certainly would not do 3 matings again.