OK, this got buried, so I am moving my second question to a new thread.
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Quote:
[Originally Posted by yorkiemom1970]
they could be a few days apart in development. i've witnessed this a few times. "runts" can be a fluke or they can be from a last conception date. [/Quote]
This being said leads to my second question. When planning to breed Trixie, we took her a couple of times during her 1st heat and again the heat we bred her to test and determine when she was "most fertile." We were aware of the whole 'last one conceived has less time to fully develop' scenerio. This being known, we found what we believe to be her 'most fertile' time and only bred? mated? them 2 days (once in the AM, once in the PM both days) to try to eliminate a 'wee bitty one' from being born...at least because of THIS reason. It seemed to work as we had 4 heatlhy pups w/ none really lagging behind.
This is the first time I've seen this mentioned here. I knew we practiced this, but I was wandering, how many others here do? Is this something that everyone generally does? I found this very interesting (and common sense) when I was preparing myself as a breeder. For those of you who plan accordingly, do you find it makes a difference? (I guess in them being relatively equal in how they have developed when they are born?)