Labrador Breeding Age Male And Female?
When your Labradors are mature enough, and you are thinking of allowing them to breed, some questions may pop up in your mind. I’ll share all the research to know about Labrador breeding along with the right age and care.
Labrador Breeding Age Male And Female?
Breeding your Labrador is such an exciting task but make sure that both dogs, male and female, are ready to mate. Breeding a female Labrador before the right age or before maturity causes pregnancy complications, and that’s an unpleasant experience for you and your female lab.
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The complications may even cause the death of your female lab, so it’s curial to know about the right age and care. As a responsible breeder, you should be patient and wait for the natural breeding age of both male and female Labradors.
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When you plan to breed your dogs to get Labrador puppies, you will need to have a complete understanding of the heating cycles.
A brief discussion on breeding age. Male Labradors can mate within 12 months of their age. While on the other hand, you should wait for the third heat cycle of your female lab before putting her into mating.
It will be good to wait for two years to let the female lab mature enough to carry a large litter.
At what age can a male Labrador mate?
Soon after 6 months of age, a male Labrador is mature enough to breed and start the mating phase of its life.
There is the recommendation to wait until two years because, in the 12th month, Labradors are sexually mature adult dogs.
But it can mate any time, even if it’s healthy and on a balanced diet; he will be sexually active or fertile even in old age.
What is the best age to breed a male labrador?
However, several factors play a role when you are about to allow a Labrador to breed. Male dogs of the medium to large breed need to be full size, so breeders should not put them into the stud services before two years.
For the large breed, it’s important to complete their growth before the mating phase of life. Some heart problems, along with hip and elbow dysplasia, may take place in them.
So it’s highly recommended not to breed male Labradors before the right age. Also, for the owner of the female Labrador, there is advice to confirm the age of the male lab before allowing any breeding.
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At what age can a female Labrador mate?
While you will notice a female Labrador’s heat cycle starts within 6 months of her age. Now that’s the phase in which female Labradors are allowed to breed and get pregnant. The heat cycle phase comes after the completion of six months each year until late in life.
Now again, here is a tip for you to never allow breeding during the very first heat cycle of the lab; otherwise, she may suffer from complications.
At this age, she is quite young, and you should not impose the pressure of lactation and pregnancy because she is still going through her growing age.
Even though female Labradors may be sexually active, she is not mature physically enough to carry multiple puppies in the womb.
When is a female labrador ready to mate?
Since Labradors are a large dog breed they hit their proper maturity level between 18 to 24 months. This is why you need to wait until after the third heat cycle for the female lab for them to have a large and healthy litter.
The lab’s heat cycle is the same cycle women go through, except not as often.
Labrador dog female mating time
Contrasting the lab’s reproductive cycle and people, they regularly go through the interaction two times every year. Critically, not all dogs and breeds are similar in their cycle; some go into the cycle once every year.
Some dogs may have their cycle multiple times each year.
Dog owners need to log their Labrador’s heat cycle. Because of the standard logging of what’s going on with the example, dog parents can recognize the odd changes.
Abrupt changes may prompt a trip to the vet to guarantee that all is going great and in excellent condition.
Female labrador heat cycle
The cycle itself lasts 3 to 54 weeks. Realize that, during the cycle, your Labrador can be exceptionally “energetic” and surprisingly prepared to jump on any stuff it sees.
Regardless of whether it’s a human, male or female canine, regardless of whether you offer a squishy toy, name it, and a female Labrador will need it.
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When is it too late to breed Labrador?
Keep in mind that female Labradors do not become infertile even at the end of their lifespan because they don’t have any concept of menopause.
But, with their growing age, some health issues and a reduction in litter size make it too late for the lab to breed.
There is a possibility that female Labradors may suffer from genetic problems. If you are allowing the female to breed later in life, there are chances of getting serious uterus infections.
However, there are some different opinions; if your female lab is healthy, you can safely let her breed over her lifetime. According to the research, Labradors usually have six puppies in each litter which reduces to four with her growing age.
According to the American Kennel Club, there should be no breeding or mating when the lab is more than 8 years old. Moreover, the professionals never register the older females at the time of mating.
While male Labradors also have some restrictions when it’s time to mate. In older age, male labs may face some difficulty in mounting, and age arthritis makes the overall mating painful.
13 years is the allowed age for the male Labradors to mate only if they are healthy. Therefore, the rule of thumb for the females is to pause breeding soon after noticing a decrease in the litter size.
While on the other hand, male Labradors freeze the quality semen rather than allow breeding at the 13th year of age.
What happens if you breed a female Lab at a young age?
As discussed above breeders should wait till the third heat cycle of the bitch Labrador before putting her into the mating phase.
But still, there is more to understand “what happens if you breed Labrador at young age.” It’s the physical strain after a female Labrador is pregnant; in the first heat cycle, her body is not strong enough.
If pregnancy is smooth and her body doesn’t feel any complications, what to do in lactation time? A 6-month-old Labrador with a healthy body can feed 4 to 12 puppies.
Apart from the complications, pregnancy will suck all of her body’s nutrients from her body. Her immune system is not fully developed to tolerate this sudden reduction of minerals and nutrients.
The point reflects that the Labrador’s body may get some diseases along with infections. The presence of bacteria in the reproductive tract causes abortion, miscarriage, and maybe the newborn’s death.
Furthermore, your darling lab may end up dying if you are careless to allow her to breed within the first heat cycle.
References
https://www.everythinglabradors.com/
https://www.easyretrievertraining.com/
