(AP) — A new litter of African painted dogs at the Sedgwick County Zoo is doing well, thanks to a friendly pit bull.

Eight of 11 of the painted dogs born on Oct. 31 survived but their mother couldn’t produce milk.

After a plea from the zoo for lactating dogs that were close to weaning their own puppies, Sparkles the pit bull became the pups’ surrogate mother on Sunday.

Zoo officials said in a news release that using a surrogate mother provides a maternal presence that zoo staff couldn’t provide.