Hi, I need some advice please. My girl whelped last thurs and had 4 pups, 3 surviving. All I can get her to eat is small amounts of chicken breast. She will not eat dog food of any kind, she is hungry and looking for food. I have tried:- tuna, chicken, dry and wet dog food, mince(raw and cooked), fish..to name a few!! She is drinking small amounts of lactol and water. Any advice would be great please.

Not sure Ive posted this in the right place.

You may be better popping this post in breeding, however, I'm sure many of us will still find you.

5 days in she should have a healthy appetite now and be eating approx 4 hearty meals a day, how is she in herself, does she appear to be unwell at all? It may well be worth a vet check, particularly after loosing 3 pups has she been checked by a vet at all?

When you say she is looking for food? How do you mean? What is she doing? Are you feeding her in the whelping area with the pups, Dam's during the first couple of weeks rarely like to leave their pups for food or water, if you are not feeding her in the whelping area then make sure that you do and feed her by hand if you have to, without food and enough liquid she is not going to be making much milk even for one pup.

I would try to feed her all that you can by hand, see if you can get her to take it, if she won't please contact your vet there may very well be an underlying problem here.

Hi Toffecrisp

My girl was the same it was a nightmare the only thing i can recommend is hand feeding her mine was really fussy for the first 3 days and now she eats although i make sure she is eating by holding the food under her nose until she has eaten what she wants chicken and tuna, scrambled egg and even ham i have mixed in her food i find that the puppy tinned meat is going down well even know mine will normally have dry with raw meats!

I have been offering food every 3 hours i don't know if this is too much but its making me feel better as i know she is eating and therefore producing milk

Also i will add a little hot water to her food which seems to make her want it more it must smell better i don't know!!!

I am still giving her lactol as well too make sure she is getting enough

I hope your little one starts eating more for you soon

Hi, my bitch was exactly the same. I fed her what ever she would eat i.e. cooked chicken breast and ham. I know it was'nt ideal but its all she would eat and i didn't want her milk to stop. I hand fed her in her whelping box. This went on for about 3 weeks or more. She wouldnt touch dog food of any kind until her pups started weaning (she cleared up after them). Don't worry just do the best you can. If she stops eating all together, get her checked by your vet immediately. It might be a good idea if you got some calcium tablets for her at this stage if her diet isnt balanced, to help prevent pre-eclampsia (sherleys make palatable tablets at a reasonable price).

The first thing I would do is check her temperature to make sure nothing is going wrong inside as that happened to one of my bitches it turned out she had maturities and have to have an hysterectomy, she was feeding the pups and apart from not wanting to eat I didn't think anything was wrong with her.  Saying that I have another bitch in the 70's who after her litter would only eat sausages the vet told me just to give her want she wants she was eating a pound of sausages a day and eventually she got back to eating normally the pups grow up to be very healthly

Hi, Many Thanks for your replies. I took her to the vet this morning along with the pups for a check up. Vet really pleased with mum and said pups were excellent. Told us to feed her what she wants, when she wants. She has had a pint of lactol today, 2 full chicken breasts, some poached fish and some wet puppy food!!!! I had been feeding her in the whelping box and by hand, but she didnt seem interested. Hopefully now she will start eating a little better, not bothered what she eats.

Thankyou again