Hi!
I'm interested to know if anyone has ever a dog who had her own pups and also took on fostering kittens. I thought I heard (can't remember where) that this can be done. I have a couple of almost day old Himalayan kittens and the mom isn't doing her job too well.And one of my dogs is due to whelp today or tomorrow, and instead of handfeeding the kittens I wondered how a dog would fare as a substitute.Has anyone heard of this? Thanks prior for any suggestions.

About thirty years ago, when I was engaged, my hubby to be and I decided we wanted to have a dog. So we heard of a litter of border collies and went along to see them. We were somewhat surprised to find in the whelping box, two cats both nursing a litter of kittens and the bitch, with her pups. The owner told us that the dog had just moved in with the cats and their kittens, then had its pups. As we watched the puppies and kittens were suckling from the nearest milkbar, and neither cats nor bitch was worried by this.
One odd thing we did later discover was that the pup we had, would not bark, instead she used to make a weird noise, we think she was trying to meow!

About 6 months ago a Weimaraner bitch in Yorkshire fostered some kittens about 18 months after having a litter.
She made the yorkshire press and also the national TV and press.
Owned by a lady Called Bea Ademola of Terrington Near Malton, York she was bred by the Hollings (Gunalt)

Very recently, Liz Craig, Rancecraig cockers, puts some photos on CockersUK of her cocker bitch nursing a couple of persian kittens.

Thank you! Your posts were very encouraging. I have a question for Isabelle, what is the specific site that you mentioned, I'm having a hard time finding it and I would love to see the picture of the Cockers and Persians nursing together. Thanks again!

I know that from a nutritional point of view that bitch and Queen Milk is similar, and that the milk replacers are used for both species. If your bitch is already friendly towards felines I would give it a go! Just cover them kits with the nevorn pups smell with the wet paper after they are born.

Hi

A friend of mine did this very recently with one of her kittens and a cocker bitch. Took really well no problems at all. She has done it before very successfully. This one made it into the local papers.

Did it for as long as was necessary, ie until the kitten was weaned or able to go back to mum - can't remember which.

hth

Pam n the boys

Have just realised that Isabel has put the details of this up - Liz is my friend. If you want to know more - send me the details and I'll forward your mail on. The reason you can't find the site is it's a closed group to members only. I'm sure Liz will help with advice if she can

Hi there. when I got my very first Irish Wolfhound, (she was a rescue) she came complete with a phantom pregnancy! I helped at the time with a general animal rescue, and we had two kittens, a week old who were orphans. Jessica the wolfhound took to them straight away and fed them willingly until they were wearned. The only problem that I had was that to start with her nipples were a bit big for their little mouths, but they soon got the hang of it.

Last August we rescued 14 cats and kittens that had been starved near death. My mum took one of the cats home as she was 8 weeks pregnant. When the cat had kittens my mums Jack Russell started to produce milk and stayed with the kittens, feeding them, while mum was out. The bound became so strong that when they were ready to be rehomed Milly (jack russell), became very upset. My mum ended up keeping one of the kittens to keep her happy. Felix is 6 months old and still feeding from the dog. The only problem is that she feeds him on my mums bed and wakes her up with the purring and slurping. I didn't beleive it until I saw them myself. Felix now thinks he's a dog and my sister has trained him to attack her husbands feet in the morning.

I don't have a dog that fed kittens, but I have an old male sheltie who reared two orphan kittens in every other way. Storm, now 18, adores small baby furry things. He tries to get to pups in the whelping room, though he is always sent packing by mum, is very possessive of older pups once mum will allow him near them, mothered our moggie cats as kittens, and even adopts ferret kits. Years ago a friend who breeds Burmese cats lost her queen during a section, but 2 kittens were saved. They didn't hand-feed well, were constantly crying and the other queen would have nothing to do with them. My friend was in despair when I called over with Storm - who hopped into the box with the kittens when we weren't looking. They promptly curled up at his tummy, and he began to lick them so we decided to let him stay for a while. From then on the kittens stopped crying and took their bottle feeds enthusiastically. Storm was so contentious that for almost a week he had to be lifted out to make him go to the toilet. He did everything except feed the kittens, including the grooming, topping and tailing, and when the kittens started crawling out of their box he retrieved them, lifting them by the whole head. When they were weaning he even regurgitated for them. We kept expecting him to accidentally injure a kitten, but he was incredibly careful and seemed to know how fragile they were. We worried that the kittens would not have a normal relationship with other cats, but they are fine. Both grew up healthy, and one did very well at cat shows - but they do have a very dog-like attitude to life:-)

Sharon

What a lovely story :-)

Fran

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