CUBS AND PUPPIES

The young of all members of the dog family (Canidae) look quite similar when they are new born. They are small, defenceless, blind, and shorthaired, with short legs and a little tail. At first, like all mammals, the cubs or puppies, which may vary in number from their mother. After a few days (about nine in the domestic dog) their eyes open, they begin to hear, and they soon need more solid food. This is provided by the mother, and in social species by other members of the group who vomit up (regurgitate) meat that they have previously eaten. A mother dog who looks as though she is being sick in front of her puppies is, therefore, not ill but is providing them with their first solid meal. In the wild the young are nearly always born in a den or hole in the ground, and in the same way a domestic dog need a dark, warm place where she can give birth, which will happen about 63 days after she has been mated.