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What a litter! Dog gives birth to 20 puppies

A Florida couple was overwhelmed when their 16-month-old pit bull gave birth to 10 females and 10 males. Now the pair is struggling to bathe, feed and take care of the newborn puppies.
/ Source: PeoplePets.com

Michael Stewart and his wife Deana Stewart couldn’t believe their eyes when their dog Dixie gave birth to 20 puppies a few weeks ago — 10 females and 10 males.

“We were just [like], ‘Wow,' ” Michael Stewart, an industrial sales manager who lives with his wife and two sons in Jasper, Fla., tells PEOPLE Pets.

The 20 adorable pups are the babies of 16-month-old pit bull, Dixie, and 13-month-old king corso, Max, who belong to the couple. “I’ve got two boys and the dogs are just perfect with them. They do real well, so we figured what we would do is have puppies off of them because they’re beautiful,” he says.

Since the pups' birth in early May, Deana, a substitute school teacher, has been working round the clock to care for the pups, who are all healthy so far. Michael says they just opened their eyes this week and are starting to move around.

“We’re having to bottle-feed them, bathe them, and keep them clean,” he says.

What will they do with all of those pups? “We would love to keep all 20 of them but you can just [imagine] how that would go, how it would be to keep that many puppies,” he says. “So we want them all to go to good homes.”

Dixie and Max’s brood is just four pups shy of a record. The Guinness World Records reportedly lists the largest litter of puppies at 24.