how many puppies can a german shepard have?

Some.

None.

Many.

Mind you, there is no such things as a "german shepard".

My breed was developed to HERD sheep in the German boundary patrolling way, and so it is called the German Shepherd Dog.

Decades ago I was in charge of a data-table recording whatever GSD breeders wanted to tell us about their litters, and whatever owners later wanted to tell us about the dog. The Committee closed it after 644 litters were recorded.

From memory, the average litter size was 8 whelped, reduced to 6½ alive at 7-8 weeks old - most of the 1½ pups per litter that disappeared were due to pups being stillborn or "fading out", but the better breeders also cull their litters so that their brood isn't strained trying to feed and supervise too many pups.

The most GSD pups recorded in one NZ litter was 15 born, of which 1 was stillborn, 1 squashed by the dam, and 1 was culled, leaving 12 - this was a very minor kennel that did nothing for the breed.

Next biggest was my own 13, of which 3 were stillborn, 1 faded, 3 were culled, to leave a manageable 6.

There were 16 litters that started with a dozen births each. The results were:

12 raised by using rotational fostering

11 (1 stillborn)

11 (1 sat on by dam)

11 (1 culled)

10 (1 stillborn, 1 faded)

' 9 (3 culled)

' 9 (3 culled)

' 9 (1 stillborn, 2 culled)

' 9 (1 faded, 2 culled)

' 9 (1 faded, 2 culled)

' 9 (1 stillborn, 2 sat on by their dam)

' 8 (4 culled)

' 8 (4 culled)

' 8 (1 faded, 3 culled)

' 7 (5 culled)

' 4 (7 stillborn, 1 faded)

{ The ' is there because otherwise Yahoo swallows the spaces in front of the digits. }

A maiden bit.ch under 3 years old should be left with no more than 5, a bit.ch 3 or older can cope with 8, although 6 is better. In both situations, extras should be either placed on a foster dam or killed. Part of the reason is the number of functional "bags" a bit.ch has along her milk-bar. Part is the stress placed on her by having to feed and clean too many pups. Part is that the milk doesn't always "come in" properly for a couple of days, and so the fewer pups to share that small amount of essential colostrum (which gives the pups passive immunity to viruses in their first 6-10 weeks) the better. Part is because the world is full of liars out to convince you that they are God's gift to breeders, and listening to them then checking their unsuitable property & disfunctional family wastes a LOT of your time.

You should start supplementing the pups' meals as of day 21, when their brains "switch on".

To ask questions about GSDs you should belong to your local GSD club and a couple of the 300+ YahooGroups dedicated to various aspects of living with GSDs.

Les P, owner of GSD'Friendly: http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/GSD'Friendly

"In GSDs" as of 1967

The gestation period for all breeds of dogs is 63 days. But, they can come early or late by a few days. Average w/ a healthy mature Shepherd is around 6-9, but there can be more or less.

Make sure she gets good Vet care during this period and great food. She most likely will need a calcium supplement AFTER the puppies are born. Nursing puppies deplete calcium quickly.

Read all you can on the subject and ask you Vet for advice. If you want to know for certain how many puppies she has you can have an ultra-sound. Ask your Vet about that as well.

Good luck and enjoy the puppies. Make sure they all get great homes!

German Shepherd tend to have larger litters with 6-12 puppies. My Shepherd was from a litter of 10.

they have about 6 or 7

About 6 mine had 5 so ii think its up to 6

My purebred GSD came from a litter of 11.

I also had GSD/Collie/Rott cross that came from a litter of 16!

it depends my dog had 13