Some time back, there was a story going around
about someone who was attempting to cross
a mastiff (or other large dog) with a chihuahua.
I don't know if this story is true, and really
don't care. But it did get me thinking.

I can see if the male is the chihuahua and the
bitch is the large dog. But what if someone
manages to impregnate a chihuahua (or other
small dog) with the sperm of a much larger
breed? Is it even possible for the embryo to come
to term? Or is there some inherent mechanism
that limits the size of the offspring to something
consistent with the size of the bitch?

Just wondering.

--
Tom Royer
Lead Engineer, Software Test
The MITRE Corporation
202 Burlington Road
Bedford, MA 01730
Voice: (781) 271-8399
FAX: (781) 271-8500


"If you're not free to fail, you're not free." --Gene Burns

On Mon, 18 Aug 2003 09:47:41 -0400, Tom Royer
wrote:

Some time back, there was a story going around
about someone who was attempting to cross
a mastiff (or other large dog) with a chihuahua.
I don't know if this story is true, and really
don't care. But it did get me thinking.

I can see if the male is the chihuahua and the
bitch is the large dog. But what if someone
manages to impregnate a chihuahua (or other
small dog) with the sperm of a much larger
breed? Is it even possible for the embryo to come
to term? Or is there some inherent mechanism
that limits the size of the offspring to something
consistent with the size of the bitch?

Just wondering.

Donno, but a friend just lost one of her rabbits because the babies
(3) were too big for her to give birth and she bled to death trying.

While the male was not large, he did the same thing to another of her
does, so he went to the butcher's block. Once is a co-incidence.
The same thing with another doe is not.

He was a French Angora (7 or so lbs) and the does were both Giants (9
or so lbs) , so they were much larger. But the normal litter is 6-8
kits, and we think the babies got large because there weren't enough
of them.

She feels horrible because she was going to cull the doe, because she
lost her litter 3 times )same buck). Now we're betting she was OK,
but nature was trying to save her from this fate.

SD