Coyotes and dogs are similar animals, and they are both in the Canidae animal family. Dogs breeding with each other produces more dogs, and the same happens when coyotes breed. But, can coyotes breed with dogs, and if so, what happens?
Yes, Coyotes can breed with dogs which creates an animal called a coydog. However, it is not common for coyotes and dogs to breed together because of their breeding seasons, the bonds between the parents, and their low fertility rates. It happens, but coydogs are rarely kept as pets since they are wild.
This article explains how coyotes and dogs can breed, why coydogs are not more common, and whether or not they make a good pet.
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Coyote and Dog Breeding
Coyotes and dogs can breed, and their offspring have a good chance of surviving and being born healthy, thanks to the similarities between the two animals.
And, the result is an animal called a coydog, a combination of the two animal names. Scientists sometimes refer to coydogs as eastern coyotes.
Some coydogs are hard to recognize because they look so similar to one of their parent animals. Just because an animal looks like a coyote does not mean they do not have any dog ancestry and vice versa.
Coydogs have some common characteristics that make them easier to identify compared to dogs or coyotes.
Many coydogs have gray fur, as do most coyotes, but they can also be other colors like blond, black, and red, which is less common in coyotes. Their unique coloring comes from the dog. Coydogs also weigh more than coyotes on average and have a more deer-based diet, which is where the excess weight comes from.
Are Coydogs Common?
Even though coyotes and dogs can breed, they are not very common. You will not find any domesticated coydogs, but some are in the wild, and some have been raised in captivity for scientists to study.
Scientists can estimate how many coydogs are living in the wild, but it is a rough estimate because they need to perform DNA testing to determine which animals are a mix of dog and coyote; looking at them is not enough to tell.
Coydogs often get mixed up with coywolves, which are a similar hybrid but the coyote breeds with a wolf instead of a dog. The two animals look similar, but most wolves in North America have some coyote DNA in them. But, there are significantly fewer coydogs on the continent.
However, these animals used to be much more common. Starting before the colonization of the Americas by Europeans and lasting into the 20th century, people in Mexico and Canada would purposely breed coyotes and dogs.
In Mexico, they wanted guard dogs, but domestic dogs were not as big and intense, so they wanted some coyotes in them. And, in Canada, they bred coydogs as sled dogs.
Next, we will get into the reasons coydogs are not more common.
Reasons Coydogs are Not More Common
So, coydogs exist but are not as common as they could be. Why is this? There are a few reasons why coydogs are not more common:
- Different Breeding Seasons
- Single Parent Litters
This section details these reasons.
Different Breeding Seasons
First, dogs can breed anytime, but coyotes are seasonal breeders. So, a dog and a coyote would have to meet and breed at a specific time of year for the coyote to be ready to breed together.
Furthermore, coydogs inherit the seasonal breeding trait. Coydogs can mate with dogs or coyotes to produce more of these species. But, their breeding season does not align with the coyotes’ breeding season. So, coyotes and coydogs rarely breed with each other, and dogs and coydogs breeding is just as rare as dogs and coyotes breeding because of the seasonal breeding.
When coydogs do breed, they are most likely to breed within the coydog family since their mating cycles line up.
Since coydogs are rare, to begin with, it is difficult for coydogs to reproduce together enough to create a significant population of them. And coydogs are a hybrid species which oftentimes means they are not as good at breeding as pure animals. Their fertility is often lower, which leads to an even smaller chance of the coydog population becoming more prevalent.
So for coydogs to be more common as a species, dogs, and coyotes would need to breed much more than they already do. But, for all the reasons we explain in this section, they do not breed all that often, even though it is possible.