What do you feed a pregnant bitch? - Page 1

What do you feed your pregnant bitch if you do not feed raw?
Especially if she had trouble keeping weight on to begin with!

I would not be breeding from her at all till I had either got weight on her or found out why she is not keeping weight on.  Its not really an ideal scenario for a bitch to have to carry and rear puppies if she has  not got the proper back up to feed herself and them.

Sorry - not a lot of help was I?  A very good quality complete food with a little meat, spreading the feeds across the day as she grows.  Some people feed a higher protein puppy food towards the end of the pregnancy.  If she is reluctant to eat complete then feed whatever you can get her to eat - chicken, breast of lamb in fact anything to provide her and the babies with some goodness. 

I have issues with a finicky eater -

Taste of the Wild Bison, with a half a can of the same mixed in, add a couple of puppy vitamins.
If that doesn't work, then maybe a bit of cooked meat or chicken with the juices mixed into the kibble and maybe a potato boiled and them mixed in the juices too.

I guess I should clarify!  Sorry for the misunderstanding.  She does not have trouble keeping weight on she is a finicky eater like Sitamom said.  Kibble alone she will turn her nose up to.  Do you guys add vitamins normally or any other supplements?

 

If your girl is finicky, then she is probably telling you she wants to eat raw food.

Since I have switched over to a raw diet my dogs start jumping up & down for joy at the sound of the blender.

When I was feeding them kibble, I would always include a raw chicken leg with the thigh on cause another breeder told me she feeds a raw leg a day right before the pups are born to help bring their milk in, and I have never needed to supplement the pups.
Just don't feed raw & kibble at the same time, it's one or the other cause they digest differently.

Right now I have access to raw goats milk,  I am feeding all my dogs some least 4-5 days a week, and they get Ester-C 500 ml, Vitamin E 400 ml, and 3/4 teaspoon of Solid Gold Sea Meal, along with many other fresh food, like Kale, sweet potato, oatmeal, carrots, eggs, or you could try canned salmon or Jack Mackerel, or sardines, those are a big hit with the dogs.
All I know if it's fresh and you know where it's coming from, you don't have to worry about a big commercial recall.

You have reminded me, time to go pick-up the goat milk,

Thanks!   
  Good luck with her diet!
           Paula

Daimond dog food "extreme athlete"

For newborn puppies if needed I use canned or evaporated goats milk and always have colostrum on hand. 

I don't reccomend to EVER supplement calcium to a pregnant bitch she naturally produces calcium while pregnant, supplementing calcium can cause SEVERE deficiency in the puppies, increase the risk of eclpampsia, force your bitch to have a C-section, and cause her body to believe it's producing enough calcium and........it's hard to explain, I'm exhausted, here is a short article:    Never give your bitch calcium supplements during pregnancy. This can lead to a potentially fatal calcium deficiency when she is feeding her puppies. If she has calcium added to her diet, her body shuts off its own regulating system. It thinks that because there is plenty of calcium around, it doesn't need to work to keep the calcium levels in her blood high. This can be catastrophic during the second or third week of feeding puppies. Her body has a sudden massive demand for calcium, and her own calcium regulating system can't increase her blood calcium quickly enough. The resulting drop in blood calcium can lead seizures and death.

On the other hand always have Calsorb on hand as calcium helps produce stronger contractions, only use if you see she is having a problem, sometimes older bitches don't produce enough calcium

Multi-vitamins are also not a good thing but I do give my pregnant bitches a PINCH of kelp every now and then, don't increase her food intake until the last 2 weeks, you don't want her overweight and you don't want the puppies too large otherwise she will end up needing a C-Section.

Now the supplements I do use I SWEAR by, I haven't had a stillborn pup in over 5 years and I know they say green/black is normal during birth but I like to see bright red....the puppies come out kicking, and very healthy.

Feed a premium kibble without any corn or cheap fillers, and with a low calcium level if you are going for grain free I suggest Wellness CORE because the protein/fat content is not very high and the ash content is low.  If you aren't using grainfree I highly reccommend Wellness Super5Mix, Blue Wilderness or Innova.  

What I give all of my dogs is cost efficient and works miracles:

Wholistic Salmon Oil:  Purchased from k9power.com

Kelp:  purchased from k9power.com

Probiotics ( Probios):  From www.jefferspet.com, if you get the 5lb container it says they charge freight but I questioned them on it and they said to put in the message box that there is to be no extra shipping charges for it.

Enzymes (Prozyme or Enzyme Pro) Also can be purchased from jefferspet.

Supplies I always have on hand for birth:

Hemostatts (incase the imbilicle cord is cut too short you will need to stop the bleeding)
String or plain dental floss (used to tye the imbilicle cord)

Lubrication

Whelping box with pig rails (Incase the bitch lays on a pup (s)he has an escape route, but even still some bitches end up killing their puppies, I never let the pups out of my sight for the first 2 days, I lose a lot of sleep but I couldn't tell you how many times I've prevented a pup from getting killed)

Drymate Whelping Mat (Best $45 I ever spent, soaks up at least 10x it's weight, rubber backing, can be machine washed)

Calsorb

Nutrical

Thermometer  (start checking her temp during the last week of her pregnancy, as it gets closer to her birthing date check her a few times a day, when her temp drops below 99.4 or somewhere near there you'll know she will deliver in 24 hours but every bitch is different)

Canned goats milk

Bottles

Heating pad

I feed raw and free feed, 3 litters 11 pups each litter no loses. It is costly but have never seen a gsd that wont eat raw meat, I do add to diet when pregrent but no heavy changes, fish oil, egg, and cottage cheese twice a week. She is 75lbs so she is not over weight, I do offer puppy food but she is having none of that  Ha  so I just increase to as much as she wants , when she wants . I should be feed so well .