Dingo Puppies

Dingoes produce one litter of puppies per year.

Australian dingoes mate in autumn and, around 60 days later, a litter of dingo puppies is born. Dingoes give birth to between one and ten pups. The average number of pups in a litter is around five.

Nature can be cruel and dingo puppies born to non-dominant females are killed by the dominant female. The dominant female will tolerate only her own puppies in a family group or pack.

Pack members, male and female, help to care for the pups born to the dominant pair.

For the first two weeks of their lives, dingo puppies are nourished only by their mother’s milk. Then they begin to add regurgitated meat to their diets.

Like the puppies of domestic dogs, dingo puppies are weaned at eight weeks old. Their diet then consists of meats from birds, lizards, mice, rats, rabbits, sheep, kangaroos and anything else the adult dingoes can kill or scavenge.

By the time they reach an age of around four months old, dingo puppies can be independent. They usually stay with their parents’ family group for some time after this though.

Dingo puppies become mature enough to breed at an age of around two years.