diff --git a/litellm/router.py b/litellm/router.py
index 6eadaaa9913..bc0b1280d12 100644
--- a/litellm/router.py
+++ b/litellm/router.py
@@ -2172,8 +2172,9 @@ class Router:
                 "messages": messages,
                 "caching": self.cache_responses,
                 "client": model_client,
-                **{k: v for k, v in kwargs.items() if k != "_target_order"},
+                **kwargs,
             }
+            input_kwargs.pop("_target_order", None)
             response: Final = litellm.completion(**input_kwargs)
             verbose_router_logger.info("litellm.completion(model=%s)\x1b[32m 200 OK\x1b[0m", model_name)
 
@@ -3193,8 +3194,9 @@ class Router:
                 "messages": messages,
                 "caching": self.cache_responses,
                 "client": model_client,
-                **{k: v for k, v in kwargs.items() if k != "_target_order"},
+                **kwargs,
             }
+            input_kwargs.pop("_target_order", None)
             input_kwargs.pop("silent_model", None)
             input_kwargs.pop("include_fallback_errors", None)
 
diff --git a/litellm/router_utils/fallback_event_handlers.py b/litellm/router_utils/fallback_event_handlers.py
index 934065aba6e..d2842294a08 100644
--- a/litellm/router_utils/fallback_event_handlers.py
+++ b/litellm/router_utils/fallback_event_handlers.py
@@ -412,9 +412,7 @@ async def run_async_fallback(
             # LOGGING
             kwargs = litellm_router.log_retry(kwargs=kwargs, e=original_exception)
             verbose_router_logger.info("Falling back to model_group = %s", mask_sensitive_structure(mg))
-            kwargs = {
-                k: v for k, v in kwargs.items() if k != "_target_order"
-            }  # rebind-ok: next hop must not inherit the previous order target
+            kwargs.pop("_target_order", None)  # rebind-ok: next hop must not inherit the previous order target
             if isinstance(mg, str):
                 kwargs["model"] = mg
             elif isinstance(mg, dict):