A white American pitbull recently gave birth to a litter of puppies, but one of them looks strikingly different from her brothers and sisters.
Pearl the Pitbull brought five puppies, three boys and two girls, into the world at her home in Hancock County, Mississippi, on Nov. 3, one of them with a bright green coat..
Her owner Annise Tooley, 57, said: “I immediately looked it up and they said it’s a rare condition but it’s not harmful to her at all.”
“And it usually goes away after a few weeks, but sometimes it doesn’t,” he added, revealing that the puppy had been named ‘Fiona’ in honor of the princess from the Shrek movies.
This rare condition occurs when light-colored puppies are exposed to biliverdin, a green pigment found in bile, while still in their mother’s womb.
Biliverdin can sometimes mix with amniotic fluid and dye the puppies’ fur, causing them to be born green.
A white American pit bull named Pearl recently gave birth to a litter of puppies at her home in Hancock County, Mississippi, and one of them was born with her fur dyed green.
Aside from Fiona, the rest of the litter is all white, just like their mother.
Usually only one puppy in a litter is affected by this pigment because each puppy has its own amniotic sac while still in the womb.
In most cases, the affected one is the weakest puppy in the group.
Green pigment can also be caused by meconium in the uterus. This is when a puppy defecates for the first time while still in the womb.
Meconium may contain biliverdin if the puppy ingested bile while in the womb. And if they defecate before they are born, meconium can stain their amniotic fluid and turn them green.
Over time, the green color usually disappears and exposure to this pigment does not pose any risk to the puppy’s health.
“Fiona is very healthy and extremely active,” Tooley said. What is the jam?.
“She also keeps running away from her mother and then cries when she can’t find her.”
The green puppy was named Fiona in honor of the character from the Shrek movies.
Tooley said WLOX who didn’t notice Fiona’s green coat right away because she was born first. But once his siblings were born, it became clear that his coat was different from the rest.
Tooley owns four adult dogs: two Chiweenie Pitbulls and two purebred American Pitbulls.
The two purebloods, Pearl and Harvey, are the proud parents of Fiona and her siblings.
Since she already has four dogs, Tooley plans to send the puppies to other loving homes.
“I wish we could keep them all because they are so cute,” she said. “But at the moment we can’t afford it.”
The rest of Fiona’s siblings have white fur like their mother.
‘We are going to sell them all except Fiona, I’m doing a raffle for her,’ he added.
Fiona’s condition is extremely rare. About one in 10,000 puppies is born green like her, according to Breedingbusiness.com.
But she is not the first puppy to be born with this unusual color.
Just before St. Patrick’s Day earlier this year, a Golden Retriever puppy was born with the same green pigment.
Her owners, Greg and Carole DeBruler of Pensacola, Florida, appropriately named her ‘Shamrock.’
‘My husband and I have been raising puppies for almost 17 years and we have never seen anything like this!’ Carole previously said What’s the Jam.
She and her husband were so surprised by the puppy’s appearance that at first they tried to “erase” the color.
Shamrock’s colorful fur has since faded to its normal golden color.
The amount of time it takes for a puppy’s green coat to fade can vary, but the pigment usually only lasts a few weeks or months.