"a litter of" vs "one litter of"

[Ched133]

Hi,

Someone told me that her dog had "one litter of puppies" last year

How many puppies are in a litter?

can you say both "a litter of" and "one litter of"?

Does this expression have anything to do with the "litter box" use by cats? But she is a dog? :-)

[Theeny]

The word "litter" is also used to refer to the number of children an animal gives birth to at one time. This is a different usage to that of the litterbox.

We tend to say "a litter", rather than "one litter", but if the mother then went on to give birth to another litter it may be appropriate to say "one litter" in order to differentiate between them.

Hope this helps :)

[Ched133]

Thankds but how many puppies are in a litter?

[Ched133]

I guess I didn't read your explanation. "one litter" literally mean "a number of"

So it can be inferred to the dog gave birth to a number of puppies last year

If this were true, I just need to ask specifically how many puppies were born