feeding pregnant bitch

[lisaward]

is there any foods that a pregnant bitch CAN'T have??
i feed my dogs on a mixed diet of tinned meat and biscuits

for variety 3 days a week i replace the tinned food with raw meat and give eggs once a week sometimes i feed cottage cheese and give any meat scraps left over.
they do have fish once a week too is this still ok??


do you also think it is ok to worm her or leave till she has whelped i have heard that the drugs aren't very good for pregnant dogs??

 

[terrierliz]

good luck with the puppies! Feed increased quality and not quantity! but sounds like your doggies have a very nice diet!!
The guidelines on worming pregnant bitches has changed over the last few years and you should worm regularly - with a liquid wormer it's easy to measure for approx the last 3 weeks of pregnancy
Best thing is to give your vet a ring, sure they will be happy to advise

 

[ann-jen]

There is no need to make any real changes to your dogs diet until the last 3 weeks of her pregnancy. I have to say I'm not a big fan of home-made diets as with commercial diets all the hard work getting the diet nutritionally balanced has been done for you.
In the last 3 weeks of pregnancy the pups skeletons are developing, the bitches mammary glands are developing and milk production is starting so she needs to have an increase in the protein and calcium level in her food. By far the easiest way to achieve this is to change her from her regular food onto the puppy equivalent and keep her on it until the pups are weaned and no longer taking milk off her. Any changes you make to her diet do slowly over a few days so you don't upset her tummy. Her apetite will probably diminish as her tum fills with pups anyway.
The only harmful food would one that has insufficient protein in it - the only one I can really think of being a prescription diet suitable for dogs with renal disease or possibly some of the senior diets. Obviously there are the same health risks in feeding raw food to dogs as people so I wouldn't recommend that.
Its very important to worm mum regularly and most wormers you get from the vets are perfectly safe to use in pregnancy. Roundworm can pass across the placenta into the pups and is also transmitted in the milk and can be a real problem for young pups if they have a hefty burden so its very important to do mum at this stage to reduce the numbers passing down the line to them.
Good Luck.

 

[kcgibson]

totally agree with ann-jen! as long as you feed the bitch a good quality puppy food (just check that it is suitable for pregnant/lactating bitch as not all of them are). you can then start feeding the puppies with mum's food when they are around 3-4 weeks old, when they start eating solids (obviously mum will still feed them herself but at that age the pups start trying solids).

 

[Klaudette]

Dont feed raw meat...at all...to anything! Or raw eggs. Please!

 

[lisaward]

why??????
surely dogs in the wild didn't cook ,just picture them round the camp fire cooking tea.
loads of dogs follow the BARF diet so why can't i mix between convential and BARF?????????

 

[Klaudette]

ARGHHHHHHHHHHHH
In the wild there is a low prevalence of disease e.g. E.coli, Salmonella. As soon as you bring large numbers of animals together (increasing stocking densities) the prevalence of disease increases...is why just about every chicken carries Salmonella.
Dogs (and cats) are not immune to Salmonella or E.coli etc etc and will suffer food poisioning. I've seen it and prescribed treatments to ease the clinical signs...and I've put dogs in body bags that havent survived...
As to the bones and raw food diet......Arghhh. Only the other week I had a dog on my operating table that had been fed this delightful diet. I spent three hours removing lodged bones from its gut.
...Still...feed your pets what you like. What should I care? Afterall, you keep me in a job and I need a new car......Problem is...I DO CARE. That is why I advise feeding of cooked meat (preferably proper pet food) and not feeding bones to your dog.
Its your choice. You may be lucky or you may not be lucky...I would never gamble with my dog's health when there is evidence that I could potentially do him harm...when that harm is so easy to avoid.

 

[sylvapak]

feed as normal really... but just up the food and make sure that they are getting plenty of nutrients

also calcium tablets is a MUST... cant stress how important it is... we have always given one a day to our pregnant huskies... we didnt give them to our jack russel and she ended up nearly dying from eclampsia... if i hadn't have been naughty and stayed up till very late that night we would have lost her

had to bottle feed the pups tho! which was interesting at times!

 

[lisaward]

now that has really confused me ????????
everywhere i've read not to over feed calcium as it gives eclampsia??

 

[ann-jen]

Yes you are right - you can cause more harm than good over supplementing calcium particularly with large breed dogs.

 

[lisaward]

thanks