Puppies can be identical twins without the owner knowing, expert claims

dailyrecord.co.uk:

When our beloved pooches are born, they appear in litters and often look similar to one another. While this leads us to believe that the chances of them being identical twins is relatively high, the reality is anything but that.

Experts have stated that pups sharing a placenta can lead to fewer nutrients for each animal - meaning that it is rarer than some of us believe.

The Mirror spoke with canine behaviourist Adem Fehmi, who works with natural dog food brand Barking Heads, to get his thoughts on identical puppies.

He described the chances of identical twins in dogs to be “incredibly rare”.Adem also explained the difference between fraternal twins and identical twins.Fraternal twins are "born of the same mother but developed from an individual egg each, fertilised by a single sperm each" - so technically, all puppies in a litter are considered fraternal.Genetically identical twins "must have developed from one egg that has split and become two embryos" - just like humans.Did you know you can keep up to date with the latest news by signing up to our daily newsletter?We send a morning and lunchtime newsletter covering the latest headlines every day.We also send coronavirus updates at 5pm on weekdays, and a round up of the week's must-read stories on Sunday afternoons.Signing up is simple, easy and free.You can pop your email address into the sign up box above, hit Subscribe and we'll do the rest.Alternatively, you can sign up and check out the rest of our newsletters here.Adem expanded: "These two embryos sometimes share the same placenta until they are born (although not always) and the one egg they have developed from would have been fertilised by one sperm."It is possible, but again thought to be incredibly rare, for