This happened to a “friend of a coworker’s son”. The bitch in question is a pit bull. Apparently after she finished giving birth to her litter of 7 puppies they left her alone with them (inside a room) and went to bed. The next she had the hind legs of one of them sticking out of her mouth :eek: and the other 6 were nowhere to be found. This is a very distrubing image, but considering that human mothers have done similiar stuff not unbelievable. 
What would cause a bitch to do this? Canine postpartum depression? What ever the dog version of thing they were possed by demons is? A defect in the breed?
I have seen cats do this to kittens too. I don’t know why and am also interested in the reason.
I actually know a rottweiler bitch that did this. Karlies first pup was stillborn and she ate it, which I understand is not uncommon, as they are trying to get rid of something that will rot and pollute their nesting area. It seemed that after that, she just thought that was what she was supposed to do with them. It WAS her first litter. But in subsequent litters, even after the pups could move around, she would bury them alive. The retards that owned her just let her have the pups to nurse and then took them away from her. At no point did they consider NOT BREEDING HER ANYMORE. So I’m not sure if it was just that Karlie was not mother material, or whether, after the first litter, she was really confused. But I do know, first hand, that if happened.
Pandas have a really high occurrence of abandoning their young. (When I saw what a baby panda looks like when it comes out I had more sympathy - it wriggles around and SCREAMS, and if I’d never had one before I’d be all “WTF?” also.)
I’ve seen it with animals that had no idea what was happening with giving birth and the slimy things afterward were things to get rid of. I haven’t seen it with experienced animals that have seen birthing done by another animal before they did.
heh…so do humans…
Was the dog really young? I bet she was under a year old. Part of it is she is too immature. (You know, people CAN have babies when they’re 12, that doesn’t mean they SHOULD - same with dogs) Even though she had a couple of heat cycles, doesn’t mean she was ready to start. And call it profiling, call it what you will, but IME, Pitty owners who let them breed aren’t real careful about it. 9 times out of 10 when they show up at my place of work with a Pitty who has Parvo, they can’t pay for treatment. ALL of the Pitty owners I know have taken or rescued them from some dumbass who thought it would be cool to have one and breed it for profit.
Most likely she was separated from her litter too young, wasn’t raised around other dogs who she could see raising a litter and therefore learn how to do it, and was allowed to breed too young to know any better, by people who don’t know any better. :rolleyes:
As far as I’m concerned, those puppies are better off than the life where they were headed.
People do this all the time at inner city and rural hospitals 
(OK it was just a matter of time before someone said this and I wanted to be the first)
Stress - or sometimes calcium deficiency (easily fixed with an injection, the change takes place in minutes).
Our German Shepherd bitch had 1 great and 1 fair litter. The third one, inbred (by accident) as the father was her son from the first litter, was not-she ate her puppies, to the horror of my mom who was out in the pen trying to save them. She got a hold of one, but he didn’t make it-so my guess is that the female recognizes that something is wrong with the litter and instinct kicks in.
I had a cat who was fine with most of the kits in her litter, but singled out the runt to be smothered. We tried to rescue and bottle-feed it, but mama cat took it back and killed it. I eventually decided it was one of those natural processes I shouldn’t mess with.
Conventional wisdom among old farmers was to watch an animals first delivery because it was believed that the birthing mother could be hostile to the thing causing the pain and kill it. Pigs, dogs and cats were regarded as being quite likely to behave this way. Now why would they eat it? Some animals will eat almost anything.
Not quite what you’re asking about, but I read about a young ferret that was giving birth for the first time. Feeling something coming out of her nether regions, she did what she was trained to do- she ran to the litterbox…
Interesting, but disturbing thread…so did the owners check the bitch’s poop? Was it any different?
Well, it IS a pretty bitchy thing to do.
Often happens with dogs who are stressed, too. Amazing what people think is OK to do to a critter giving birth - let the kids watch, pet the dog, call in the neighbors, let the other dogs come in to see what’s up…
This is one of the reasons that dog breeding should only be done by people who have done their homework and are prepared.
I’ve heard of it in situations where the bitch did not feel safe/stressed or upset at too much human interference. I’ve never had a bitch eat a pup, but I have had them definitively discard a pup that had some defect or was puny. Many times if I tried to bottlefeed the discard, it died anyway, reinforcing the idea that the mother knew that it would not survive and didn’t waste time/milk on it.
It was explained to me that some animals will eat their young if they don’t feel it will be safe from other animals. Sort of a “you can’t kill it if I get to it first” thing. I always though it had something to do with destroying/hiding any vulnerability.
When my newly-rescued (and not yet accustomed to me) cat had kittens, she would keep re-hiding them every day, so the vet told me to keep a close eye on her just in case she tried to eat them. Worst she ever did was try to shove them through the one-inch opening under my closet door. They didn’t appreciate that.