Family stunned as pet Labrador gives birth to 13 puppies
When Daisy was preparing to give birth to her first litter her owners were looking forward to welcoming six or seven new pups – 13 arrivals later and the new mum has nearly found herself in the record books.
The three-year-old Labrador, from Bomere Heath, is definitely going to be busy in the coming weeks as she cares for the fresh pups.
Daisy's owner, Lynette Halford, said they think the record for Labrador puppies is 15 in Scotland and 14 in England.
Daisy actually had 14 over a marathon 12 hour labour but sadly one did not survive.
Lynette, 49, said they had been stunned when the pups just kept appearing.
She said: "We had no idea, we were expecting six or seven at the most. They just kept coming."
Lynette said Daisy was recovering well and the family were taking turns to help out with the new arrivals – and had rearranged the kitchen and the garden in preparation for the chaos that arrives when they start running around in a couple of weeks time.
She said: "She has been fine, she is a bit tired but she's been having lots of fuss and we are sharing the feeding duties at night time."
Lynette said things were relatively calm at the moment but she expects it to get more frantic in the coming days.
She said: "They are still tiny, their eyes are not open yet. It will be a couple of weeks but then it will be mayhem. We have not even thought about that yet."
She added: "We have moved the kitchen around and taken the hot-tub down in the garden so we have plenty of space ready."
Lynette said they are also having to police the attention to make sure that some of the greedier pups are not taking advantage of their smaller brothers and sisters.
She added: "There are a couple of smaller ones because there are some greedy ones so we rotate them so they get an equal amount of attention but they are doing really good."
