I have a bitch with her first litter and I've never had a bitch that has produced so much milk.  She has done a fantastic job, really text book but I'm a little worried about her.  Pups are 4 weeks and fat as barrels.

I started them on one meal a day of Puppy porridge from 3 weeks old increasing to 3 times daily now... the reason for this (as it's a little earlier than I might usually) is because mum has lost too much weight in my opinion.

I obviously don't want to overfeed them myself and have her ending up with mastitis etc etc but also don't want her losing anymore weight.  I'm feeding her 3 times a day and back on her usual food now (not puppy food - although she does clear up the pup's food).

Any ideas?

With my last Malinois litter the bitch lost a LOT of weight. I mean so much so that it was scary, I've never seen anything like it.  Her ribcage -where you could see every rib -was way, way bigger than her back end. I'd guess she lost 50 % of her body weight.I never stopped letting her feed the pups (as long as she wanted to) but I fed her chicken wings pretty much every hour. 3 meals I would not consider to be enough even for a bitch that hasn't lost a lot of weight. I give an absolute minimum of 6 meals for bitches that are losing weight with pups, 4 meals for those that have smaller litters and do okay.

My bitch was light weight before her litter and a fussy eater. I made her a meatloaf everyday with mince, eggs, soaked puppy chow, grated veg. wheat biscuits and milk powder. She ate it all and then polished off chicken wings, necks or drumsticks twice a day. Also dry food was available all the time. She munched it all up, and now nearly at weaning, she is better then when she started.

I don't believe that 3 meals a day is anywhere near enough.  And I don't take them off puppy food either.  They are on it even after pups are weaned, as it does help them get coat quality back.

Don't know how much your breed suffers with coat loss after rearing a litter, but mine look awful by about 12 weeks after whelping.  In addition to the extra meals, I do leave the dry puppy food down for them ad lib.

I agree with the others that if she is nursing she should be having as much as she wants to eat, if it's dry food I would leave it constantly available if wet then feed as much as she wants as often as you can.

I think 3 weeks perfectly ok to start weaning at though so don't stress on that score.

6 meals a day here for a nursing mum.. plus treats etc.. I keep them on puppy food until pups are at least 6 weeks.  If they have lost a lot of condition during nursing, I keep them on puppy food for a little longer.. added to the puppy food is chicken wings.. 50/50 fat/beef mince, and tripe..

I also allow pups to continue to feed from mum until mum decides to self wean.. this helps reduce possibility of mastitis.. coming off nursing slowly, allows milk production to slow down naturally

Thank you for your replies... I think I gave the impression I was limiting her food which I'm not... the 3 meals I can get down her are as much as I can get down her.    She is being incredibly fussy and she's been tried on all types of complete puppy or adult food I can get my hands on and although chicken wings were the only thing she decided she would touch 7 weeks into pregnancy, as soon as the pups were born she refused them!

If I leave food down all the time she just ignores it and the only time she's eaten it with any gusto was when one of the other dogs was hovering in the same room.   I'm really giving her as much as she wants, it just seems she doesn't want anything much... She's been a typical finicky eater... so strange that she ate half a dropped banana the other day but refused mince beef.

Thank you for taking the time to reply.

Are you soaking her food as a sore mouth can put them off eating enough?

Mine love Bananas, they are very nutritious.

Not soaked to the point that it's gone completely soft but always giving having had hot water previously poured on it. 

Normally she wouldn't touch a banana with a barge pole!  I think she's being awkward and purposely eating what I wasn't planning on her eating! 

Maybe I should try that tack? - Offer her bowl of lettuce and accidentally drop a plate of fillet beef on the floor?!

Mine was fed 6 meals a day when feeding the pups & then i gradually reduced the amount after week 4.....until week 8/9 she was back on her normal meals.
She wouldn't eat her normal kibble for the 1st 2 weeks, so she was fed on poached chicken breasts/white fish/rice & tablespoon of honey per day.  She also had some puppy kibble mixed in sometimes.  I think it is quite common for them to go off their normal food at this time.

I would spoil her & try some chicken/fish.  Dorwest herbs sell a homeopathic remedy to dry the milk, which usually works within 2 days.

Hi Wendy, thanks for your reply.... Normally I have the opposite problem and it's trying to stop mum eating me out of house and home!  Never had such a finicky bitch.  I would love to give her 100 meals a day right now but there's no chance! 

It does seem though it's not ridiculously uncommon for others to have bitches that go off their food, still at 4 weeks post-partum so I'll battle on... Is the homeopathic Dorwest remedy the Urtica Urens 3c one?  I know they do 2, one to encourage milk and the other to suppress it.. anybody used it on a bitch with a litter this age?  Thank you!!

Yes it is the Urtica Urens 3c but make sure you order the one that does dry the milk & not produce more.  I have actually used this on my girl with her 1st litter because i felt she was getting very tired with 9 puppies & was advised to use this.  The puppies were just over 6 weeks old at the time.  

I left bowls of dried food down when mine had her pups but I fed her raw meat 3 times per day as well.  When she was pregnant, the stinkier her food was, the better and this continued when she had the pups.  She loved any gruesome meat like tripe, liver, hearts, gross!  But it helped her.  She was in great condition and by the time the pups were 10 weeks old, you would never have known she'd had pups!

Just to update, we're finally getting some weight on her yippee!  For some reason she's decided that she will wolf chicken wings down in the garden just not in the house!!!  So she's been having lots of these and getting a good covering now thankfully!  Thanks for all the advice...

Oh they like to put us through it.