# How old is "too old" to breed a bitch for the first time?



## GulfCoast (Sep 24, 2007)

My vet told me that a 5 year old bitch was on the "high side" for a first breeding. Seems to me that I have heard of bitches being bred for the first time at 6 and 7, or am I confused?

TIA.


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## ErinsEdge (Feb 14, 2003)

There was a thread on this before. At the age of 7 the _first time_ taking dramatically declines.


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## windycanyon (Dec 21, 2007)

I think it depends a lot on the health of the bitch and I would venture to say that a field or performance bitch is probably in much better physical shape compared to the average pet bitch (that most vets see), so it shouldn't be an issue. 

One of the members here just had a litter from an almost 8 yo -- her first (it was only 3 pups though). I bred one of mine at 4.5 and 6 yrs, and she had 8 pups in each litter. My girl who had just turned 6 whelped 10 (2 died however) 5 wks ago. She whelped 12 in her first litter at 3.5 yrs. She has had 6 mo or less cycles, which worried me due to the whole "aging" process of the uterus w/ each cycle. She will be spayed in a month or so as I don't want to push it any longer with her. Her sister had 7 & 8 at ages 3 and 5.5. Another friend has had 2 huge litters w/ her girl who was bred at 7 and 8+. So no, I really don't see a reason to worry about breeding a healthy, fit 5yo personally, but others may have different experiences. Anne


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## rabersin (Dec 2, 2009)

I have a bitch I bred (A.I.) at seven years of age. We had nine puppies, all were healthy and are now 13 weeks old. I have kept in contact with many of the owners and all the puppies are healthy and coming along in the training. I would have prefered to breed her earlier, but natural breeding did not work and I lost my male that I wanted to breed her to. For some reason time flew by and when I finally got the male I wanted, she was seven. Her health was never a problem through the pregnacy, feeding the puppies or now that they are all in their new homes. I kept a female out of the litter and she is doing remarkably well.


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