Need some advice about feeding lactating mother whippet

friesian80

friesian80

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My whippet gave birth to 8 beautiful healthy puppies last wednesday. Right through the pregnany she ate well but now she has had the pups she has gone off her food a bit.

She was getting Royal Canin pediatric food mixed with butchers puppy food but she wont touch that now.

She has reverted back to eating Wilsons dog meal mixed with Sheba meat pouches (this is what she ate before she was in pup) but I fear she isnt getting enough nutrition to feed 8 pups.

She loves things like chicken, eggs, ham.well basically human food :rolleyes:

She is not drinking a lot either so I have been putting a tiny bit of evaporated milk mixed with water in a bowl (1pt milk to 4 pt water) which she is drinking.

Any advice on what I could feed her which wouldnt upset the puppies? I dont want to go trying different dog foods at the minute as that would not fair well on the pups stomachs.

Pups are big fat and very healthy, so no worries about them but mamma is looking a bit done in.

She has always been fussy and slim but being a whippet she doesnt have much fat reserve so really want to keep her weight up, any suggestions welcome.
 
Museli type foods should never be fed to sighthounds or any breed with a shape that predisposes them to GT.
Have you tried mixing the canin with the stuff she will eat or finding a high performance diet you can mix in. Canin + ceasar?
Standard Butchers tripe is usually eaten and not too bad.
Stop giving milk -it can lead to overproduction at this stage and drying vback as the pups don't pull it all. Moisten the food instead.
 
Ive never heard not to feed musli type food to sighthounds, can you explain why this is? My vet is aware she is fed Wilsons and doesnt have a problem with it. I have literally tried every dog food their is from the vets and off the shelf at the supermarket and Wilsons is the one she does best on. I know its high in fibre but she looks great on it.

As for the milk, ive just spoken to vets who have advised to carry on with the evaporated milk with water (she is totally refusing to drink plain water) and try adding some rice pudding, scrabled eggs etc to whatever she is eating.

Im just wondering if anyone else has experienced a similar problem with their lactating bitch and what they found best to feed.
 
Hi, When my whippet had pups i fed her as often as possible with what ever she would eat. I gave her puppy food (Alpha racer) mixed with her normal food and mixed in tuna, pasta, chicken, dog meat. I also gave her lactol to drink as she wouldn't drink water either, just watered it down more than usual. She was fine after a week or so. :-)
 
Ours` get as much raw meat/tripe/chicken carcases as they want,plus raw eggs ,sardines ..anything really ..but never dry grub.If she stays picky take her temperature,if it is up ..the vet tout suite.
 
Crackedhalo said:
Hi, When my whippet had pups i fed her as often as possible with what ever she would eat. I gave her puppy food (Alpha racer) mixed with her normal food and mixed in tuna, pasta, chicken, dog meat. I also gave her lactol to drink as she wouldn't drink water either, just watered it down more than usual. She was fine after a week or so. :-)
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Ah so its not just my fussy little Tara then, that makes me feel a bit better!! I spoke to the vet who kind of said the same thing, give her whaever she will eat as long as its not too strong in fear that she gets the runs. Ive just fed her 2 sheba pouches and 1/3 pack of sliced chicken which she has gobbled down so im feeling much better now!!!

My whippets get fed 4 times a day anyway but with Tara right now im offering food every couple of hours and twice through the night.

East Kent - Id love to try the raw meat diet with mine but best wait till pups are off her. Will take her temp but she has fairly picked up since she has eaten :)
 
If I was breeding (and I am not, but hypothetically) I'd listen to people with experience of rearing many litters over the years, for dietary advice :) rather than your vet. JMO though.
Was going to suggest chicken mince and tripe. It's not a matter of 'trying the raw meat diet' - lots of people who normally feed dry, including my own mother dearest, who is not a big fan of the raw diet normally, would feed this sort of thing to nursing bitches.
 
Thing is I take advice from my vet more seriously than someone off the internet. I have no idea who is experienced in breeding on this forum, comments on this thread are helpful but if it conflicts with my vets advice I will choose what the vet says, youve got to understand that.

As for the raw meat diet, I did not pick up that this was a suggestion for a lactating bitch, I thought as I stated it was a suggestion to move on to the raw meat diet, which I 'thought' wasnt a good idea whilst she had pups on her.

Im terrified when giving her chicken scraps incase I leave a bone in there, I dont think I could handle giving her a whole carcus!!! :O (Please note im not saying it would be wrong to do so, just that my stress levels wouldnt cope ;) )

So would you feed the chicken mince and tripe raw? If so I know she wouldnt eat it as on occasions Ive given her a bit of raw chicken breast and she looks at me with pure disguist as if Im trying to poison her!!! :rolleyes: If I cooked it would it in theory take a lot of the goodness out?
 
I am not anti vet (have one in the family:p) but unless your vet has bred several litters you will possibly find that breeders will have more experience of healthy bitches and pups than a vet. I think many vets will agree with me on that point.
I cannot offer an opinion on whether or not muesli feeds are suitable for sighthounds, although I am not a fan of them, we lost a GSD to torsion after he had a small feed of maize flake based food which we had one at a show :(.
With your girl I would try the chicken mince, tripe route and see if that tempts her, ideally raw, you certainly wouldnt want to cook tripe in your house. Are you feeding her in the whelping box with her pups, for the first week Evie would only eat if her bowl was in the box with her, if I put it outside the box she couldn't possibly leave her babies to eat! For the first few days I gave her puppy milk too, but stopped that after about a week as she had loads of milk.
 
No worries, it's just that I butt heads with EK and S4S on here :p but I do respect them in terms of having reared lots of litters successfully :) but you're right, not everyone is to know who is who on here, apologies.

Chicken scraps would not be a suggestion, I suspect EK was talking raw carcasses and yes, I would have been talking about feeding both the chicken mince and tripe raw but you can also feed them lightly cooked. Places like Natural Instinct do them all boxed up in ice cream tubs, Prize Choice do frozen packages from larger Pets at Home branches, so minimal mess/fuss, even just as a food topping.
 
MurphysMinder said:
I am not anti vet (have one in the family:p) but unless your vet has bred several litters you will possibly find that breeders will have more experience of healthy bitches and pups than a vet. I think many vets will agree with me on that point.
I cannot offer an opinion on whether or not muesli feeds are suitable for sighthounds, although I am not a fan of them, we lost a GSD to torsion after he had a small feed of maize flake based food which we had one at a show :(.
With your girl I would try the chicken mince, tripe route and see if that tempts her, ideally raw, you certainly wouldnt want to cook tripe in your house. Are you feeding her in the whelping box with her pups, for the first week Evie would only eat if her bowl was in the box with her, if I put it outside the box she couldn't possibly leave her babies to eat! For the first few days I gave her puppy milk too, but stopped that after about a week as she had loads of milk.
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Ive always found Wilsons to be a popular choice with my dogs, especially with my whippets who as I said ive tried pretty much every brand suggested to me on here and from the vet. I will try the chicken mince from the supermarket and cook it slightly.
Yes im feeding her in her whelping box, Ive even reverted to hand feeding her chunks as she seems to prefer this to taking mouthfuls herself!!! :rolleyes:

CC - No worries, I dont come on here much so really dont know who is who tbh. Unfortunately I dont have the luxury of places like Natural Instinct or Pets at Home as I live in the Shetland Isles.
 
Just noticed the spelling mistake in my post - should be "won" of course.
Natural Instinct can be ordered direct from the company, not sure what delivery would be to the Shetlands though.
As long as the pups are gaining weight and contented I wouldn't worry too much, she is probably taking in enough nutrition with her picky diet ;)
 
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