Dog's Up for Adoption News & Entertainment
Mama Dog Gives Birth To 7 Ultra-Rare Puppies Within Hours of Entering Shelter
Sonja Henrikseen
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When a visibly pregnant mixed breed dog—possibly part German Shepherd—was surrendered to a rural North Carolina animal shelter, staff had no idea they were taking on eight dogs in one. Within hours of being admitted to the shelter, the dog who is now named Rainbow went into labor right inside her kennel. Shelter staff jumped into action, and soon they had Rainbow in a more comfortable, safe, and quiet spot to give birth to her puppies.
Everything was going smoothly, but the shelter team started to notice an interesting trend—all the puppies were female! Like humans, puppies have a 50/50 chance of having a biological sex of either male or female, so it’s quite unusual to find a litter of puppies with one gender.
Meet Rainbow’s Seven Colorful Puppies
In the end, Rainbow gave birth to seven beautiful and healthy puppies. Each and every puppy was female, and all seven were named after colors of the rainbow! Burgundy, Umber, Chartreuse, Gold, Indigo, and Violet are just darling, and Rainbow did such an amazing job, but the kennel staff knew that a noisy, stressful shelter was no place for newborn puppies and a postpartum mama dog.
Thankfully, the team at SPCA of Wake County was able to take Rainbow and her seven little girls, and find safe, experienced fosters to give the puppies and the recovering mama plenty of TLC.
Brought to her foster home in early April of 2024, Rainbow will spend a few months recuperating and raising her puppies before she—and all seven little ladies—will be available for adoption. If you live near Raleigh, North Carolina, and want to adopt a dog, keep an eye on the SPCA of Wake County’s website for updates on this octet!
How Common Are Single-Sex Litters?
The chances of a puppy being female are around 50%, and each puppy in the litter has the same chance of being born female vs. male. Dog breeders have attempted to find methods of predetermining sex in litters of puppies, but most prove themselves to be old wives’ tales and pure works of fiction.
Some evidence indicates that the age of both parent dogs could have an impact on the sex of the puppies. One study in particular examined how parent age and litter size affect the sex of puppies from German Shepherd Dogs. According to their findings, litters with higher ratios of female puppies were more common when a younger female dog delivered a small litter, or when older female dogs delivered a large litter. However, they also found that of all the litters studied, they had included approximately 50% male puppies and 50% female puppies.
In other words—Rainbow’s all-female litter of puppies is pretty darn rare!
