Hi everyone my girl is five and a half weeks gone and has always been quite fussy with her food but this last week has gone right off it, we  ave added fish or eggs or yoghurt to get her to eat a bit better, any recommendations? She is currently on burns food, oh also she has gone quite itchy, definately no fleas , could this be hormonal do you think?

Will she eat raw chicken wings? Most of my bitches have gone off their feed half way through pregnancy and finding something they will eat can be a nightmare. They tend to turn their noses up at all the normal 'doggy' foods so I just have to go through everything from sardines to rice pudding, just to find something.

The itchiness could very well be a sign of the heat, as well as pregnancy. I know when I was pregnant I got very itchy towards the end. ;-)

My bitch was the same in whelp, couldn't get her to eat a thing, in the end I didn't find anything that would work more than a few days in a row but I had the most luck with raw foods.

This seems really common. I have a btich that does it too. she just seems to go on hunger strike. I feed her fresh chicken,toast, scrambled egg, anything I can think of. She'll love it for a couple of days and then act like you are trying to poison her when you give it her for a third day. Its a hard time for sure but nothing awful has come of it. The pups are always fine, shes just loses a bit of weight and I get a few more grey hairs. :)

> Most of my bitches have gone off their feed half way through pregnancy and finding something they will eat can be a nightmare.

Same here.  :-(

They do this to help us go grey and haggard looking.

Same here, my bitch got what ever she wanted to eat, even if it was on my plate as i was just about to eat my dinner. Her needs were greater then mine so i ended up with half my dinner going to her quite often lol. Hasten to add that stopped as soon  as puppies were weaned (although she did start to eat after whelping), back to strict regime then.

I'm just after having to buy white fish fillets.  I boiled it up and then added some goats milk.  She turned her nose up at first but eventually ate it.  I've been giving her rice, boiled chicken thighs and boiled eggs but she's went off that too.  Yesterday she only ate a few slices of cooked ham!!  Sometimes I mash a few hot dogs and put it over the food, she even likes the taste from the juice they are in. 
I still dont know if my girl is in whelp or having a phantom.  I find this so hard especially as my girl is a giant breed and should be on a substantial amount of food!
Good luck and let me know if you find anything else that works.

The only thing my girl will eat 5 weeks+ is diced raw chicken breast, chicken wings, and fresh diced raw Ox heart....raw is best as they get all the goodness from it.

I would be careful of the brine that the hot dog sausages are in though.

Thankyou you have put my mind at rest a little :) she was scanned as having nine , I guess she will just have to be an even more pampered pooch for a while then lol . She doesn't like meaty bones the rottie has to eat all the meat and gubbings off the bones and only then will she lovingly devour the bone itself, maybe she's just plain old lazy ...or clever lol

I don't have the feeding problem, my girl is starving (apparently)

but I do have the scratching (and panting) - was wondering what to do to alleviate it for her, can't see any wee beasties or just accept she is hot

I go over to RC Reproduction Starter [think they have changed the name]at 6weeks, it has tiny pieces, you don't have to give as much in quantity to get the calories, she stays on that through to when she is back in condition post whelping, pups wean on to it till they are 8 weeks old, not had problems pre whelping, post whelping they get fussy though.

There are Mousses available from Fish4dogs to add extra flavour and variety and they go down well with any of my dogs, hope to use them when weaning my next litter.

>There are Mousses available from Fish4dogs to add extra flavour and variety and they go down well with any of my dogs, hope to use them when weaning my next litter.

Rhodach

Last time I had pups, there was a really good offer on their salmon mousse, and I ended up with 70 odd sachets!  (Always like a bargain!)

My toy breed pups thrived on it.  So good luck for mating your next girl, and trying pups on the mousse.  I can definitely recommend.

I look out for offers[due to expire soon] and freeze the tiny pouches as they will fit into nooks and crannies in the freezer and don't take long to defrost, the dogs think it is icecream if still partially frozen.

our eldest girl was what i would call a bin, she would eat anything and everything given the chance. When she reached 5 weeks pregnant it all changed and i was so worried as it just was not like her at all, she turned her nose up at everything raw, dried, cooked even went as far as buying joints of meat and cutting them up really small she would have a few mouth fulls but only when offered it in our hands, all the other dogs loved it as they were given her left overs rather than it going to waste. My only advice would be try her with different bits all day long and dont push it too much they will eat when they are happy to eat, if she is a only dog i would try leaving some food down at all times as they can graze when they feel like it

They do this to help us go grey and haggard looking.

Oh, thats whats  done it!! Thank-goodness, I thought it was cos I was getting old!!

Hi , she lives with our rottie pup 11 mths so leaving food down isn't an option guzzle guts would snaffle it :) this week I've had good success with grating a sml amount of cheese  adding it to her food with a drop of hot water, if I don't add the water she roots all the cheese up and leaves the dry complete, but she's now on three meals and thankfully,touch wood eating well , she also has a bit more energy ths week so maybe she was feeling sicky too