Our female was bred on 08/15/09. This is our first female great dane and our first litter of pups. She is HUGE and looks miserable! I check on her every hour, she is comfortable in her whelping box. Sometimes when I check her she is not as swollen as she was before. Not sure if I am driving her as crazy as she is driving me. She is so HUGE that I am very scared for her. It seems like danes can have large litters.
If anyone has some idea or just a little advice on what I can expect, I would appreciate it. Maybe it is just because danes are such a different breed, I am just freaking out.
Thanks for anything!

Dane litters average around 6-10 pups so it sounds like she has quite a few in there!

It would be just like a pregnant human, the last few stages would be very uncomfortable.
Danes having a litter is no different to any other breed except for the expense and the size...

Does your whelping box have rails fitted inside it? This is very important with large breeds.
You need to fix either rails or just wide strips of wood inside the box a few inches above the bottom so that when the b*tch lays down any puppies underneath her get pushed against the wall underneath the rail, hopefully saving them from being squished.

As for the whelping, well there are too many thing to list here so I will have to provide you with a link to read.

I love this site by Chelsea Collies, it details what you will need when whelping pups as well as care after they are born

Newborn Puppies....Care of the Newborn puppy

One thing I will say is to please get your b*tch spayed after this litter, Great Danes are extremely hard dogs to grow and I have seen far too many people buy puppies and ruin them simply because they do not know what to feed or how to care for them properly as the 'breeder' does not give out care sheets.

If you would like help on writing care sheets for great danes please let me know (My mother has been breeding them for 20+ years)

Thanks for your response. This female is actually a rescue from a puppy mill. We have always had males and have always had spayed or neutered animals, I guess there's a reason why!
We have had a male dane since he was a pup, rescued as well, and he has been a joy and a handful! I think care sheets would be a great advantage as many books are very vague. Would love to have an opportunity to speak with your mom if possible. Please send some contact information or I can provide mine.

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Originally Posted by YourGirlFriday

Thanks for your response. This female is actually a rescue from a puppy mill. We have always had males and have always had spayed or neutered animals, I guess there's a reason why!!
We have had a male dane since he was a pup, rescued as well, and he has been a joy and a handful!! I think care sheets would be a great advantage as many books are very vague. Would love to have an opportunity to speak with your mom if possible. Please send some contact information or I can provide mine.

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If she's a rescue from a puppy mill has she had a litter before, or was she just a pup from one of the breeder dogs?

If she's had a litter before she should know what to do, but then again, I don't know anything about great danes.

I hope all goes well. Please do have her spayed after this litter. Also, let us know how it goes. Too many times people come here to ask a question and we never know if the advice given helped or if they person or animal is doing okay.

Also, pictures, we love them. :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by YourGirlFriday

Thanks for your response. This female is actually a rescue from a puppy mill. We have always had males and have always had spayed or neutered animals, I guess there's a reason why!!
We have had a male dane since he was a pup, rescued as well, and he has been a joy and a handful!! I think care sheets would be a great advantage as many books are very vague. Would love to have an opportunity to speak with your mom if possible. Please send some contact information or I can provide mine.

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I will give her a call and see if she can come on and give you some information, she does have an account here but doesn't use it very often.

Any questions you need answered or things you would like to know more about just write a list on here so if she can't get on the site I can forward the information onto her and get back to you.

I don't think she would mind me giving out her e-mail but I will have to check with her first ;)

I just called her and she said that's fine :)

I will PM you her e-mail address.

Some points that she just gave me was to make sure you are feeding the b*tch about 4-5 times a day in small meals because her stomach just can't handle big meals at the moment with all those pups.

And also to feed her puppy food as it has more nutrients for her as well as red meat to help her produce more milk.

Depending on the size of the litter you may need to wean them at 3 weeks as with larger litter the mum can't supply that much milk to all of them and they don't get enough nutrients from that alone.
With weaning you just give them a very small amount of food one day (usually just puppy food mixed with s little puppy milk and put it on your finger) then each day give them a slightly larger amount.

She said that there is a lot of debate about bedding as well. The rails are a necessity but she also uses very thick bedding underneath the prevent the pups being squished as well, whereas apparently many people argue that a harder bedding is better.

The mother should have been wormed about 10 days before her due date but seeing as how it is too late now you will have to worm her 10 days after the pups are born... Worms can lay dormant in the b*tch and she can pass them onto the pups... the pups can't be wormed until they are 14 days old.


... They are the main points that she gave me anyway ;)

Oh... I can't send you a private message until you have a few more posts (or have been a member a bit longer, I forget which it is)

Thanks for everything. As of this morning, we are just hanging in there. She is very still, no discharge as of 2 hours ago, but I am going to check on her again after this post. I will keep you all updated. I am so afraid that she is going to have like 20 puppies! She is so big, but is it normal for a dane to be so big? Wish I had a picture to compare her to another female!

You might be surprised, she might only have 5 or 6 or she might have 10 or 12!

We had a poodle who had a litter a couple of years ago now and we thought she was having a lot of pups... when she laid down on her side we could see them moving around inside her...
The day finally came and she only had 4 pups... it can be surprising sometimes.

I'll give your e-mail a try...

Pictures! WE need pictures!:D

How are you going with her?

Any sign of puppies?

If so how many did she end up having and did she have any trouble whelping?