Hello everyone...got some questions about litters of pups...

[k9Karen]

Or if testosterone were released, why doesn't the mother show those traits?

Don't know about dogs, but there are some thoughts that suggest women who are pregnant with boys act and look different than women who are pregnant with girls and that the testoterone produced by the male fetus is responsible. Don't know how you'd test something like that though. In a dog, if the litter was all male or all female, maybe some kind of study could be done, but I don't think one-*beep* litters happen very often, so it would be a pretty long study!

[ldvet]

Isn't there a condition in twin calves -- when one is male and one is female? I believe the female calf's reproductive tract, under the influence of testosterone from her twin brother, will not form properly. She will look female from the outside but will not have a uterus and ovaries and will never cycle and produce a calf. I forget what this condition is called but it occurs because of the extent of placentation in the womb of the mother cow. All placental types are not created equally and the cow seems to have a very "leaky type", if I remember correctly. That was a long time ago but I do believe this is true. I loved embryology in vet school.

[Julie B.]

and what you suggested IS one of the thoeries about the male calf's hormones spilling into the female calf's blood. Freemartins are sterile and useless to farmers. Sometimes they are passed off at auction as heifers w/o buyer's knowledge. It is a very interesting pathogenesis.

[ldvet]

It has been a few years (9) but I haven't forgotten some of that minutia that they told us.

[newfie]

In a litter of 3 pups, 2 male 1 female, penny the female could not be more of a tomboy if she tried.
so....i would tend to believe this
in penny`s litter of 6 girls and 3 boys, 2 of the boys were just sweeties, they were just like the gals, the big boy however remained a tuffy

[TheSkeptic]

Parthenogenesis is virgin birth. ..... Some animals, mostily insects, will have offspring without needing a male. ........

As I understand it, Free martins are not parthenongentic, they are just sterile fraternal twins. . ....