Rottweiller Gives Birth To Massive Litter Of 16 Puppies

A family expecting their pet Rottweiler to birth six puppies got more than they bargained for when she ended up popping out sixteen - the largest litter born in the UK.

The pups joined Mark Marshall, a soldier, his wife Laura and their five children, including a newborn, who live in a four-bedroom house on army barracks in March.

Mark has had the puppies on a strict feeding regime, which involves 40-minute spells with eight feeding at a time, and an hour's break in between for mum Roxy. Mark and Laura have even had to help out by feeding some of the pups with special milk from the vets.

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The pups, now eight-weeks-old, are in the process of moving in with their new owners who are dotted around the country, besides one puppy named Bella who the family are keeping for themselves.

Mark, a corporal with the Duke of Lancaster's Regiment at Weeton Barracks, near Blackpool, explained: "The scan showed six puppies and I thought 'great, I'm happy with that'.

"So we had six in our head the whole time, the scans are usually pretty accurate apparently.

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"But no - there was another ten hiding somewhere!"

He added: "I was so shocked at how many we ended up with. Obviously we hadn't prepared ourselves for that but in the end, it's been a nice surprise.

"It's definitely been a lot to handle and it has been really tiring.

"I was feeding them in groups of eight for eight days straight and going to work in between."

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Mum Roxy went into labour on March 12, but Mark and Laura, who have never bred puppies before, didn't know it at the time.

Mark said: "We heard a noise downstairs so went down to check and Roxy was hiding behind the sofa.

"We got her back into bed then went back upstairs. She kept on crying so we went to check again and saw a puppy lying on the floor.

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"Then we saw one in the kitchen. She delivered another four within the next half hour and by 12pm she had delivered 13.

"I went out to get a few things for them and got a call to say another three had come along. I couldn't believe it."

Mark's large litter matches up to a litter of 16 who were born in Telford in Shropshire in 2017.

The largest litter born in the UK arrived in Luton in 2009, with 18 puppies, but sadly one was stillborn and another died two days later.

Topics: Dog, Life News, Puppy, Real

Ciara Sheppard

Ciara is a freelance journalist working for Tyla. After graduating from the University of Sussex, Ciara worked as a writer at GLAMOUR Magazine and later as the Assistant Editor of Yahoo Style UK.

@ciarasheppard