I am on the waiting list with a very reputable breeder who emailed to inform me that the dam for the litter I am waiting on had a "false pregnancy", confirmed by X-Ray. I am not in any way doubting the breeder's integrity or truthfulness, but I am just curious what this term entails? Does the dam in some way present an appearance that the breeding took, only to find later that there are no puppies "in the oven"?
All the behaviours and none of the pups. My female had several before we finally spayed her. They went full term, about 61days. She nested, collected her toys (pups), and she fretted over them until about weaning age (7) weeks. They don't require breeding, only a heat cycle.
If the breeding was confirmed by ultrasound at 30 days, and then no pups, the puppies reabsorbed. It happens. For some reason the pregnancy can't proceed to term and there can be many causes. It's equivalent to a human abortion except the products of conception are reabsorbed into the system. Since most bitches ordinarily don't show at all until about 35 days, and then they started to show and proceeded until delivery and then look like they are pricked by a pin and deflate, x-ray reads no pups, they had a false pregnancy, (there never were pups). Technically, according to the Repro specialists, ALL bitches have a sight false pregnancy after going into heat. It's hormonal. Only a small percentage that do the full blown false pregnancy thing. I've also had females hide the pups very well until a few days before delivery. If an US wasn't done then you don't know if there ever were really pups so it is usually termed a false pregnancy.
I have seen it once. I had a girlfriend that had a Golden Retriever female that was bred, got fat, started producing milk, but no pups.
