Hi,

We have a bitch who is about six weeks pregnant with her second litter. We have now started to increase her food.
The problem that we have is that the last litter she had was very big for the breed - she had 10 but the breed average is 4 - 5. At around week 7 - 8 she stopped eating and was sick a lot (even vomiting blood the last day) for a week before the vets decided it would be best to get the pups out with an emergency c - section so mum would be OK. Having the pups early meant we unfortunately lost a couple.

When scanned 10 days ago, the vet said she thought it was another large litter - at least 5, but she always says this. We however thought we could see 7. We are concerned that she could run into problems like she did last time so we wanted advice on what to feed her.

The dry food she is normally on is Chudleys original. However, we wondered if she would be better moving onto a higher protein food like Iams that means she eats a smaller quantity per meal so as to avoid too much discomfort in later pregnancy again. What would fellow members suggest? I thought maybe she should be on the puppy Iams as well if I give it to her as this will give her the higher protein needed for the pups. If I give her this, do I give her the same quantity of food as if she was eating the adult Iams? For example, the Iams adult says for her weight give her 240g per day. So would I give her 240g of puppy Iams a day.

I know this is a bit confusing - I know what I mean! Basically I just want to feed her enough nutrients to feed her, help develop the pups and produce sufficient milk but without giving her too much bulk or discomfort in her expanding stomach!

Thanks in advance.

I start RC Reproduction Starter at 6 weeks, this continues through to when she stops feeding the pups, it has higher nutrition in a smaller amount for them to eat.

I wouldn't use IAM's as it isn't a good quality food, you would be better finding a better quality puppy food and give the recommended amount for her weight.

There are several posts re quality foods on the forum if you do a search.

Many thanks for your reply. I will have a look on the web for royal canin today! I will also have a look under the feeding topics.
Thanks again.

What did you use last time for both her and the pups?  Were you pleased with the results?

Personally speaking, I wouldn't change the brand of food at this stage - you should have thought about this prior to her even coming into season - Cudleighs do a puppy food so I'd probably try that as she's used to the brand.  Majority of breeders feed their pregnant bitch puppy food from 6 weeks.

You'll need to feed more than normal but in smaller meals but it's impossible to say by how much you need to increase food without knowing the dpg/breed etc

I wouldn't change anything from what you say in reality she had a fit healthy large litter, yes you lost two but that can be the norm in large litters.  My girls just had a litter and although we ended up with a c-section as the boy was very big they are extremely fit and healthy pups and not fed a food that many would recommend on here.  Mum and pups look fantastic.

I BARf feed my dogs,but this was the first in whelp bitch that I have fed with Barf through out her entire pregnancy.No supplements,just good quality meat,fish and veg with probotic yogurt,eggs and alittle honey.I was apprehensive,thinking about changing her diet,butin the end we persevered and mum and pups are doing well.As said,now isn't a good time to change foods.Does your brand do a puppy version as this may be more suitable at her stage of pregnancy.