# Why is it that there are always more male pups in a litter?



## lucidity (Nov 10, 2009)

I tried doing a search on google for this.. but couldn't find an answer. Does anyone know why there are always more male pups in any litter? Is there a scientific reason behind this? Also, is this why breeders usually sell bitches for much more than dogs?


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## yappypappymom (Oct 22, 2009)

I agree...the boys go much lower than the gals, BUT, I THINK that the people posting these silly prices ASSUME that potential adopters are doing the same thing that THEY(sellers) are doing...-using the females as breeding stock  Back when I was interested in another pup, I ran into this scenario ALOT!!..Its sad, but, these people will simply NOT just "quit' nor give-up...run like hell in the opposite direction is my best advice


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## lucidity (Nov 10, 2009)

Ugh, yeah, this is why I hate people sometimes... they think of bitches as "breeding stock" and not "pets".  And then there are those breeders who will sell pups for more if you want breeding rights etc. etc.


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## Michiyo-Fir (Jul 25, 2009)

Not every breed has more boys than girls. With bigger breeds it's usually about equal. With Paps there are definitely a lot more boys and I don't know why. The girls go for higher prices because they're more rare and for some reasons more people want girls than boys. Apparently a lot of people have this idea that girls are calmer, less naughty and tend to stay cleaner and they all request females. Boys from a breeder I know go for 1000-1200 and girls for 1500 on limited registration.

With other breeds I was looking at like BCs, aussies, Huskies, Tollers, boys and girls go for the same price and there really isn't more males than females. I think that just happens a lot with the small breeds.


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## Darla Giselle (Feb 19, 2010)

Yup, with malts the boys are <2000 and the girls are 2500+, I've even seen as high a 5k for PET quality females. I know maltese have a 65% its a boy. That's actually the same with humans. But also females are in much higher demand. Everybody wants a little dog to dress up and put bows in the hair. And to tote around like Paris Hilton.


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## pugmom (Sep 10, 2008)

There is not always more boys in a littler....I know a trainer/breeder that had a littler of Bouvier pups on Saturday....all are girls 



I've always assumed that females cost more because of the future breeding aspect????....but I could be way off.


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## Ayanla (Jun 11, 2009)

I'm not a geneticist (I think we have one in training on the board maybe?) but I'm not sure anyone has a concrete answer.

I do remember reading, though, that in humans the males are the much more fragile sex despite the popular notion of women as the weaker sex. They're more likely to be born premature, more likely to have birth defects, more likely to die from SIDS, etc. It's the reason that, despite more boys being born, by middle age women outnumber men and that disparity continues through old age as men continue to drop off at a rate higher than women.

It may be that the higher number of male pregnancies is a genetic evolution in response to the fact that fewer males survive to breeding age.


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## Kina_A (Jun 8, 2009)

I always thought it was because male sperm swim faster then female sperm, and female sperm lives longer then male sperm. So male sperm fertilizes the eggs that are already there.

So when a new egg comes out because the female sperm lives longer it gets to fertilize the new eggs.


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## RedyreRottweilers (Dec 17, 2006)

There are not always more males in a litter. I know of 2 recent litters, one was 13 puppies, with ONE male, one was 5 females only.

In Rottweilers there is generally not a price difference between males and females.


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## Kyllobernese (Feb 5, 2008)

I also do not think there are more male than female puppies. You may get some litters of mostly males but over time it evens out. When we were breeding Scottish Terriers, I kept very accurate records and the sexes came out even over a period of time.

I think some breeders ask a higher price for females because they do not want to end up with extra males but don't mind if they have to keep a female.


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## Laurelin (Nov 2, 2006)

With papillons it's not that there are more males born. Actually every litter I can think of are about even. I know no all male litters however Mia was from an all female litter. I know one litter of 5 with 4 boys and 1 girl but that's about it. The problem with paps and why there are so many fewer girls for sale is simply because of litter size. The average pap litter is 2-3 puppies and the breeder usually wants to keep a female. Whereas in larger breeds the litters are bigger so you actually tend to have more females to choose from. Some breeders keep males but females are really more valuable to a breeding program. There is a big difference between having 2 puppies to evaluate and 13... Most papillon breeders will keep and grow out most females they get. 

I have never seen a good breeder sell a bitch for much more than a dog. show v pet dogs, yeah I see a slight difference there most the time. Mia cost the same as any performance prospect puppy from her breeder.


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## Keechak (Aug 10, 2008)

I have a friend who bred a Welsh Springer litter and out of 8 puppies all were female.

Hawkeye's litter was 8 pups, 3 boys and 5 girls. (Hawk's Dam went on to have 15! puppies in her second litter, but I don't remember how many of each gender)


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## Michiyo-Fir (Jul 25, 2009)

When I got Nia, her breeder has 3 litters with a total of 9 puppies. 3 were females and 6 were males. She kept one female, one went to a breeder friend and I got the last female lol. She did charge me more for the girl though. She said she wanted to keep Nia as well to see if she was going to be shown but I insisted she let me have Nia lol.


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## lucidity (Nov 10, 2009)

Hmm.. Interesting.. I've read many articles online that keep saying there are usually more males in a litter, though. Something biological.

But yes, I've learned from a lot of bio classes that the ratio of boys to girls (in humans) is always higher at birth, but equalizes by the time we reach adulthood.


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## TStafford (Dec 23, 2009)

When i was looking for a puppy most litters I found had either no males or only a few that had already been claimed. I did find one that had 7 males and 2 females, but that was the only one. From what I saw they were all close to the same price if not the same.


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## Medic84 (Mar 29, 2010)

Definitely seems like there are usually more, however Hunter was one of only 2 boys among his 8 sisters.


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## Shaina (Oct 28, 2007)

Ayanla said:


> I do remember reading, though, that in humans the males are the much more fragile sex despite the popular notion of women as the weaker sex. They're more likely to be born premature, more likely to have birth defects, more likely to die from SIDS, etc. It's the reason that, despite more boys being born, by middle age women outnumber men and that disparity continues through old age as men continue to drop off at a rate higher than women.


Plus there's the whole...boys do more idiotic high-risk things than girls, in general . 

I've only talked to a few breeders to the degree that we reached a pricing discussion...regarding two FCR litters, one Golden Retriever litter, and a Canaan dog litter...all priced males and females equally.


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## RaeganW (Jul 14, 2009)

I think most breeders without a spay/neuter contract charge more for females because of the chance to breed her yourself. 

Among breeders who do have spay/neuter contracts, there isn't really the chance to "make money" off a dog's pups. Show/performance pups, if sold on a breeding contract, are often priced more because there's that chance. In the case of males, I guess there's stud fees to consider.


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## KBLover (Sep 9, 2008)

Isn't gender basically a 50/50 proposition?

So, assuming a large sample size (lots and lots of pups), the trend will be towards a 50/50 split, although over the short term (one litter or maybe 10 litters) there can be wild swings in either direction?


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## Equinox (Nov 11, 2008)

From what I've seen, males and females among German Shepherd pups seem about equal. If anything, I'd say females are more often... _but _that's most likely because males are in higher demand in many cases and therefore it feels that they are less common in litters. 

Trent's breeder charged $200 _less _for his female pups.


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## lucidity (Nov 10, 2009)

KBLover said:


> Isn't gender basically a 50/50 proposition?
> 
> So, assuming a large sample size (lots and lots of pups), the trend will be towards a 50/50 split, although over the short term (one litter or maybe 10 litters) there can be wild swings in either direction?


Actually, it isn't. It's a small difference, but a difference nonetheless. In the human population, i believe that the ratio of males:females is higher at birth, and slowly declines as they age.

I have no idea about dogs, though.. I haven't been able to find info anywhere.


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## Shannonoler (Sep 28, 2021)

lucidity said:


> I tried doing a search on google for this.. but couldn't find an answer. Does anyone know why there are always more male pups in any litter? Is there a scientific reason behind this? Also, is this why breeders usually sell bitches for much more than dogs?
> My mother was a breeder for over 30 years and she always told me you get more females if you breed earlier in the heat opposed to at the end of the Heat and it always rang true for her !!


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## DaySleepers (Apr 9, 2011)

This is an 11 year old thread and the original poster hasn't been active here for several years, so I'm closing this to further replies to avoid confusion. Please feel free to start your own thread or join in any of our current discussions!


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