Caring for Young Wild Dingo Puppies - the basics.
Information sourced from ‘Australian Mammals : Biology and Captive Management’ , a great resource for specific diet requirements and development, though most behavioural and historical information is a bit outdated. Regardless, it is a great reference for caring for Australian Native species.
Photo: Three week old rescue dingo pups
Inspired by sidetongue who is doing a fantastic job looking after her little potato dingis. Dingo mating season generally occurs from March to May, with pups born from June to July. Allo-parenting is common within dingo populations, with one litter being raised per group born from the eldest pair. Younger females will have their breeding cycle repressed by the breeding pair, but often have pseudo-pregnancies and will lactate to assist raising the pups. Dingo puppies are fed every three to four hours after the first week of birth when they wake, with soft meat being introduced at two to three weeks of age in addition to the milk. Milk is approx. 37 degrees and usually given at 10 – 15% of the puppies body weight (especially if they are weak/ orphaned). They are able to lap water and milk from a bowl from 2 to 3 weeks of age. Weaning starts at naturally at 3 weeks, when pups begin to be fully mobile, and are totally weaned at 12 weeks.
Dingoes are nocturnal, and will wake at dusk, and pups will play, eat, sleep throughout the night at 3-4 hour intervals. While they are active during the day, they are less so and will sleep 45 – 65% of the time.
In the wild, dingoes eat mammals (72%) like possums and wallabies, birds (19%) like scrub turkeys and waterhens, reptiles (2%) like goannas and skinks, and 3% other matter, eg. insects, fish, or eggs. Puppies will tolerate the fats in milk production, but must consume minimal fats after weaning.
As with other canids, dingoes have a critical socialisation period of 2-8 weeks, where it is essential that they interact with other dingoes (or dogs), bond with their carers, and carefully be introduced to new people, animals, sounds, smells and stimuli. Dingo puppies develop physically, behaviourally and cognitively at double the rate of domestic pups, and should be trained by reinforcing wanted behaviours and encouraging bite inhibition (on people and dogs), and conditioning pups to have positive reactions to people around their food (at weaning) by bringing high value treats while the puppy is eating. Though they are very young, they shouldn’t be underestimated They are acutely aware of their experiences and will remember them, and are able to make their own decisions in a manner unlike dogs (especially of that age). Exposure to dogs and people should be a primarily neutral experience, especially at first, and then gradually repeated as a positive one. Flooding is disastrous, and it should be remembered that dingoes aren’t dogs, they have different behavioural and social requirements. They should not be held to the same standards of behaviour to dogs, and will be highly stressed by overwhelming environments some dogs can handle (like dog parks, markets, shops). Dingoes will bond strongly to their carers and familiar animals, and will need their support to cope with scary encounters if they are consistently protected and given coping strategies through training. Dingo pups are very intense compared to dog puppies, and this can result in stress for adult dogs. They may need back up if they don’t enforce boundaries for the puppy and show clear communication of pain when the pup is play biting. Dingo pups are inclined to completely disregard human voices and attempts to remove them from the dogs, until they have grown very familiar to their new life with people. They do respond to mimicry of dingo vocalisations - they will stop biting if you yelp (LOUD) on your own or dogs behalf, they are likely to respond to growls in replacement of corrections (in extreme cases, don’t go around growling at them all the time), and will beg/ be reassured/ respond positively to chuffing sounds made at the back of the throat (to mimic dingo mothers calling their pups). They are not going to understand dogs barking, and will probably become highly anxious and try to copy them. Dingoes do actually ‘bark’ (sort of, it’s different to dogs but it is sharp) when very alarmed, so the frequency of domestic dogs barking will be unfamiliar. They will become somewhat accustomed to it, but may well always be confusing and highly stressful.
