Posted on 06/12/2014 6:25:40 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Breeders were shocked: ‘I couldn't believe it when I first saw them,’ said Aida Vallelado Molina, who raises dogs with her dad.
A pair of Spanish dog breeders was shocked recently when two puppies were born green.
"I couldn't believe it when I first saw them," said owner Aida Vallelado Molina, 27.
She added: "I thought the puppies were maybe dirty somehow, and I tried to clean them, but the color wouldn't come off and then I realized it was the color of their fur."
Aida Vallelado Molina says at first she thought the puppies were dirty somehow.Aida Vallelado Molina says at first she thought the puppies were dirty somehow.PreviousNextAida Vallelado Molina says at first she thought the puppies were dirty somehow. What a perfect pair! Both pups were born with a distinctly green coat. Although green, the oddly tinted canines seem perfectly contented. The cause for the odd color may be exposure to biliverdin, which can be found in the placenta. The tiny green dogs nurse alongside their normal-colored littermates.
Molina, who breeds hunting dogs with her father Manuel Vallelado, 52, in the Spanish town of Laguna de Duero, said her dad had called the puppies the Hulk pups, and joked that she shouldn't get them angry. In fact, the animals were smaller and weaker than the other pups in the litter. One of them, a female, died shortly after birth but the male pup is still alive although weak. Manuel Vallelado joked they were the Hulk pups.
He is also gradually beginning to lose his coloring. Vet Daniel Valverde is probing the case, and said: "There are no other recorded cases of this happening in Spanish scientific literature. I am carrying out virological and bacteriological tests to try and find an answer." The two Spanish puppies are not the first reported examples of green pups. In 2012, a green Labrador puppy was born in England that lost its green hue after 10 days. The cause for the coloring at that time was given as exposure to a substance called biliverdin, which can be found in the placenta.
Absolutely did!
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