My long awaited litter has arrived, My girl gave birth to 4 beautiful pups early hours yesterday.  Her appetite isn't great, would others be considering giving her a calcium supplement, she is however eating a yoghurt per day

wouldnt worry about the eating at this early stage just make sure she is drinking plenty ..you could put puppy milk or goats milk in with the water.
Try feeding her by hand add a little fresh meat to encourage her.
Calcium sup isnt required with all breeds , I wouldnt give calcium  sup to my breed but it can be different for others.

calcium isnt any good orally if you are thinking of eclampsia? it has to be IV i wouldnt give it, it may be dangerous

If she is eating yoghurt she will probably eat scrambled egg with goats milk too, she probably just feels she wants something to lick up. If she ate the placenta's she will be fine with enough nourishment but she needs to drink, so puppies or pasturised goats milk need to be given too, she will get plenty of calcium from milk drinks morning and evening.

Try soaking puppy complete food in warm water with scrambled egg too. :-)

Same as the others, I would never supplement my bitches.  I always think you can do more harm than good.

My bitches don't have a huge appetite this soon after whelping.  I find that perfectly normal.

> she needs to drink, so puppies or pasturised goats milk need to be given too,

Lol, sorry couldn't resist.

Bitches sometimes do take a couple of days or so to get their appetites back after the birthing ordeal.

I tempt mine by giving them a gruel mix - recipe on here somewhere!  It's made up of porridge, milk, honey, complan, glucose and an optional egg.  They absolutely love it - make a small amount fresh for every feed and she'll soon get her appetite back.

In the meantime, give her plenty of fluids and anything tasty you can get her to eat or try hand feeding her as she may not want to leave her babes just yet.

its always taken about 4 days with my girls to start eating and i have 1 that wouldnt eat after a week so in the end we had to get it down her :( ( placeing it into her mouth its was horrible to do but she just wouldnt eat) dont ever want to go though that again!

but most girls just need a little time and lots of nice food to tempt then back to eating.

also remember that bitches mouths can become very sore with cleaning, so kits if soaked/moist easy to eat food fed in the whelping box to make things easy rfor her.

Thanks so much for all the replies, most appreciated!  I've only ever bred one litter prior to this one, and that was 13 years ago so a bit rusty...  She is eating but is very fussy, when I spoke to the veterinary nurse y'day about my concern she mentioned tube feeding - my bitch! Think it's a bit premature for that at the mo! Thanks again for putting my mind at ease :-)

> she mentioned tube feeding - my bitch!

 

Glad you ignored her!!!!!