Hi

My bitch has a litter of 10 puppies.  They are 3 days old.  I have been weighing them each day but for the past 3 days they have all been losing weight.  Both mum and babies are healthy.  Puppies are sucking but aren't getting enough milk.  Does anyone know what I could give my bitch to help her milk increase?

Many bitches don't have a lot of milk at this stage to be honest.  But I feed high protein to my bitches.  They get minced steak, white fish poached in milk, scrambled egg, pilchards  etc etc

I also find that bitches who are very maternal don't want to leave the whelping box and so not going out to use the water bowl.  I actually take food to the bitch and she has it in the whelping box, hand fed if needed.  The same with drinking, if the bitch won't drink enough water, even when left very close to her, you will often see a huge difference if you give goats milk instead.

As the amount of pups is large you may well find that you need to think of early weaning to reduce the huge demand on her body.

Only enough stimulation will increase milk supply if food and water intake are good.

To aid water intake I add copious amounts of water to the dry food so it virtually goes to a mush, and feed at least 4 or 5 times a day in the whelping box.

If she is starting to spend time out of the box take the smallest pups and plug them onto her while the toehrs sleep.

Yu say they have lost weight is that just in the first day (I find this with my pups which lately have been on the large size for pups of the breed) and then expect them to regain the loss the second day and increase by day three.

I do keep plugging pups onto Mum at every opportunity.  Pups can tire and not suckle enough especially fi a large number have to struggle to find a teat, so wasting energy.

If the pattern of loss and gain is not as above you may have to top up some pups.  If some seem weak then start with those, but actually it is better to remove the greediest pups and allow the others to feed to appetite.  then put the big greedy ones back on to encourage more milk.  Also put weaker pups onto a teat that the greedy more efficient pups have flowing well.

I do everything to discourage Mum from wishing to leave her pups except to toilet.  This generally means sitting with her, as our Pets or working dogs, their loyalties can be torn.

In addition to the excellent advice above,  you could try giving your bitch some fennel seed tea.

You could add the fennel seed to homemade broth and it would have the same effect. 

About a teaspoon of seeds to a pint of water works well :-)

As one of the ingredients in gripe water, it's good for tums too :-)

If you do find yourself topping up pups regularly,  top them up after they have fed from mum,  and preferably the largest ones as Brainless wrote,  otherwise her milk will decrease rather than increase - it's supply and demand.  So no demand=no supply.

Don't panic.    Newborn puppies don't always put on much weight, if at all during the first days.   And fact is right now, they actually don't need lashings of milk - if you bring it on too fast, she may well run into mastitis.   All the nourishment she needed to provide for her litter should have been given during her pregnancy.    It's really only into the second and third week that the maximum demands will be made on her by her puppies.

Lactation is stimulated by the act of suckling so it's great that they are all nursing from her.   Make sure any small puppies get latched onto the middle teats, ahead of the big bruisers!!

10, depending on the breed, is a big litter, so you may well be looking at supplementing them - half on and half off.   If these puppies were really in trouble, regardless of the weight gain or loss, they'd be noisy.   If they are content and she's doing her job - allowing them to nurse, cleaning them afterwards etc - my bet is all is well.    If not, they'd be noisy.

Keep giving her several small meals, high in protein rather than loads of bulk and my bet is these puppies should be fine.   Again if you are unsure about what's going on, bottle, or tub-feed half the litter one time, and the other half the next time.   They should be kept nursing from her, to stimulate natural lactation.  

I assume all of them have seen your vet - mum for a shot to clear out any retained birthing material, and the puppies to be checked for abnormalities you have missed.    Unless you are experienced, this should always be done as soon as whelping is over.