An Alberta dog breeder got an early Christmas surprise this week when her Great Dane, Kahlua, gave birth to a “shamrock green puppy.”
“I had no idea that a green puppy could be born,” Lise Laperriere said from her home near Ma-Me-O Beach, Alta., about a one-hour drive southwest of Edmonton.
Laperriere admitted she was baffled by the puppy’s unusual hue at first.
“I took her to the sink and tried to scrub her,” she said, “thinking she had some fluids or liquid on her coat, and realized that she was a little shamrock baby.
“My son actually, he knew about the green puppy… about the shamrock green puppy, but I didn’t, so I Googled it and realized how they are green at birth.”
Laperriere said the four-day old puppy is one of a litter of 15 to which Kahlua recently gave birth.
“This puppy here is very unusual,” she said. “I have never seen a green puppy before.
“She’s a little girl and she’s very cute and very fat — and very green.”
Laperriere said the puppy is healthy and happy, as is her mother, and that after reading about the condition, there should be no additional concern for the pooch’s health and that the green tint will eventually get lighter and lighter.
“What happens is the bile into the mothers has a substance in it that actually travels through the placenta and into this little baby’s pouch,” she said.
“They’re all born in a little pouch, and this is what the green colour on the puppy is that’s super rare.”
READ MORE: Green ‘shamrock puppy’ born in litter of Great Danes
Laperriere said Kahlua is tending to her new daughter with the same affection as for her other puppies.
“She loves her baby,” Laperriere said.
“She’s a super good mama.”
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