Hi, I wonder if you could add some words of wisdom. My giant breed girl is 5 weeks pregnant, we had her scanned last week and the vet says that she has got ' a fair few' in there, you could clearly see 4 in one horn on the scan pictures, she is already noticably rounder! The problem is she has got very picky with her food. She lives with 3 other dogs and is usually my greedy girl but she is just turning her nose up at every type of kibble that I have tried, I tried just re-offering it at regular intervals, but she went nearly 2 days without eating!
I have resorted to mashing half a tin of pilchards in with her food, which thankfully does the trick but now I am panicking about the calcium content of her food and the possibilty of inertia, can anyone offer any advice?
Thanks in advance!

Hi. It is perfectly normal for bitches to go off their food at this time. Don't panic! ;-) Start feeding her anything she will eat. Scrambled eggs, creamed rice (mine loved this :-) ) pilchards, sardines, anything really. Don't worry about calcium levels. She will have stored this in her body already. Giving extra calcium can be more dangerous at this time. If you are worried about it have a word with your vet. Little and often is the way to try. If she has a large litter she won't have the room space for a lot of food. :-D

I was worried about that too - and checked with vet as at moment is only eating sausages and honey ham from hand - refusing to eat off bowl.  Refusing scrambled eggs and creamed rice, so feeding her little and often and have just about 3 weeks to go.  She is healthy in herself, and this way I know what she is eating

Thankyou so much both of you! I was getting myself into a knot about it. I will quite happily carry on mashing her pilchards (in tomato sauce not brine- she really is that fussy!) and watching the others go green with envy! I must admit snowey if I let her she would eat nothing but 'people food' she never lost her appitite for that! I can go back to getting excited about the puppies now :)

My giant breed bitch is 7 weeks gone now but between 4 and 5 weeks she went off her food completely. Would take a mouthful then nothing at all.
We just carried on encouraging her and it paid off in the end. By 6 weeks she was back to eating everything.

I wouldnt worry to much unless her appetite doesn't come back after 6 weeks gone.

Good luck and shout if you need any more help.
Shell

i have still to get my girl scanned to confirm thats she is in whelp, but she has went off her dry food in the last few days, she went the same with her 1st litter so its looking good,she is eating tinned sardines with some rice not a huge amount but she is still eating she picked at the scrambled egg the other day i may try the tinned rice next :) and also chicken wings she cant get enough of them, her appetite soon picked up in the latter weeks :)

One of my girls did this from 7 weeks in whelp until the pups started to be weaned. I hand fed her raw meat and she happily ate chicken wings, necks, hearts, tripe and occasional liver. We made a gruel up for her after the pups were born and both her and the pups thrived. I was a nervous wreck though!!!!
mel.