Are puppies from the same litter paternal or fraternal? I am guessing from the sheer number of a litter that they would not all originate from the same egg but since I really don’t know anything about animal husbandry, I suppose it is possible.
Having a kind heart, I am fostering a dog and 7 puppies and was wondering if they all have the same father. The pups are different sizes and have different textures of coats. Since the dog was a stray, could it be possible that the puppies all have different sires?
The terms are fraternal or identical. They can definitely have more than one dad. Human twins have been born from two dads (two races, besides!). I suppose you could get DNA tests and find out.
IIRC from my Animal Science classes, yes, your puppies could have different fathers. Female dogs ovulate multiple eggs at once, and can breed to several males. In my current litter of six, (which were deliberately bred from one male) I have four distinct phenotypes, which are acceptable within the breed standard. I do have two who look enough alike to be identical twins, but I don’t know that they are.
For the benefit of “the class”, can you refresh our memories? What is a phenotype? Is that what the ratios in genetics shows? Each variation is a phenotype? I forget… - Jinx
The female is a mid-sized Australian Sheppard looking thing. There is one dog colored like a Rottweiler but doesn’t have the square head and muscular build, another looks like a Husky or Malamute with fluffy hair all arund her neck and light eyes. Another is all black but is starting to get brindle on her legs. All of those are big built dogs.
There is a very small one with beagle or bull dog type markings. He’s half the size of the others, slick hair and a totally square bulldog looking head.
The other three look kind of like the Mom…I’d like to keep one but I’d like to have an idea of what it might look like and considering she is medium sized. She could have bred with a big dog or small one…guess she might have been kind of slutty.
Oops, sorry Jinx. I was referring to their physical type, specifically, their colors, white patterns, and ear/tail positions, although I can’t really tell about the last yet, since they’re only 5 weeks old. Super Gnat nailed exactly what I was intending with phenotype. It’s been a long time since genetics, and I’m not near any of my old textbooks at the moment! I just keep it up as a hobby in animal breeding. (Border collies, BTW)
mipiace, it does sound quite possible that you have half-siblings in your litter, but if the mother is a good Heinz mix, some of that variation could be coming from her background as well. Have fun with your puppies!
You ought to get the necessary clue from the fact that puppies in the same litter are not all of the same sex. Sex is determined genetically in mammals, so obviously the puppies in a litter derive from different zygotes.
Almost all animals that give birth to litters have fraternal twins…the babies come from different eggs fertillized by different sperm. One exception is the armadillo…they typically give birth to identical quadruplets. http://www.earthwatch.org/expeditions/loughry_02/theproject.html
