Does breeding time affect whelping time?

[Lauri & The Gang]

My breeder and I were chatting and she mentioned something that I thought was interesting. She used to do all their breedings at night. It was more convenient for her to have her husband around for help. That meant waiting until after dinnertime. Now that he is retired they can pick whatever time of day they want.

She said that since they started doing the breedings during the day the bitches have been more liklely to whelp during the daytime hours.

So I thought I'd check here.

What time of day did you do the breeding and what time of day did the bitch start whelping?

[angelaw]

ok, i kinda lean to this thinking as well. Oxana would be bred early afternoon, early evening, she tended to whelp earlier in the day as well. I also did a surgical ai in the morning, that litter she started whelping about 3 in the afternoon.This was for 3 litters

Diesel got bred later at night, say 8-9pm, started to whelp 4-5am (by whelp in the context of this discussion, when puppies started to actually show).

Grace was bred via ai at the vet's office in the morning, so I'll let you know when she goes as she's due on the 19th.

The females Beth used to breed at night, seemed to go at night as well.

[Chris Wild]

I have not noticed this at all.

Time of day of breedings we've done has varied widely, from morning to early afternoon to evening to late evening. And our bitches have always whelped at night, except in one case. Our C litter was whelped in the afternoon/evening. That female whelped all of her other litters at night. The only difference between the Cs and the others was that the C litter was very small, 3 pups, whereas all others were 7-9.

So at least in my experience time of day for the breeding has had no bearing on time of day for the whelping.

[angelaw]

I always liked when Oxana would start in the afternoon and be done before bedtime,lol.

[Chris Wild]

LOL.. yes, daytime delivers would be nice. I'm getting too old to pull allnighters, but it appears the bitches always have other plans.

[selzer]

All of my breedings were after nine pm. All of my whelpings began in the wee hours of the morning. All but one. Arwen was bred many times to my male, and I cannot say which we hit on, and being several years ago, I cannot say that I bred her after nine either. But she woke me up at 2:00AM, and did not have the first pup, Tori the Terrible, until almost six in the evening. Hmmmm.

While we must work around schedules, and especially when we do not own the stud, I think there is no way around the later breeding times, so I guess we will whelp in the wee hours of the morning.

[Crookedcreekranch]

I have seen no correlation between the two.

But I will second that most are during evening/early morning hours for whelp. And I too am getting too old...and my knees/back are getting too old for those late night whelps! But what can you do?

[Andaka]

I believe it is an instinctual behavior to whelp at night.