hi, helping my daughter to complete a project for school on her favourite topic, west highland terriers! We have borrowed books from the library & got some info from web sites, however she has included breeding in her contents page. we have some info on what age to breed, vet checks & finding a suitable stud dog, but cannot find much info on the actual care of the pregnant bitch, testing for pregnancy? sizes of litters, etc. My parents have westies but we have no experience of breeding them. Any general info very much appreciated! She is trying so hard with this!! Thanks x x

Buy the book of the bitch it is full of the correct info. Care of pregnant bitches is the same for most breeds. 

The Kennel club stats. have litters at an average of 4.

Testing for pregnancy same again for most bitches. Either wait and see or have her scanned at 30 days plus

Think that is about it.

There are whole books written about just that single topic!

There are several methods to test for pregnancy: palpation, scanning or X-ray. Most people I know don't alter their bitch's regime for the first 6 weeks after mating, and then merely split the usual diet into more, smaller meals as there's less room inside for quantities of food! At about 7 weeks the amount of protein is increased, but it's a bad idea to overfeed and underexercise a pregnant bitch - flabbiness makes for difficult whelping.

Hope this helps a bit. 

Age to breed: 18months to 2years up to about 6 years. Should not normally have more than 4 litters at the most and at least 12 months apart. The KC says you can breed 6 litters from a bitch up to 8 years old but most feel this is too many .

Finding a suitable stud dog: Always choose a succesful show dog so that you can be sure it is a good example of the breed. Contact the clubs for the breed, if you are an owner and intend to breed you should always join the breed club, you will get a year book which shows all the top kennels and you can find a compatable dog. Clubs contact details can be found on this site.

Testing for preganancy: I feel its best to keep her safe at home and wait and see. You can usually tell they are pregnant by 5-6 weeks unless its a very small litter.T hey can be scanned, the later you scan the safer it is for the pregancy and also more accurate. I personally would never scan before 46 days as bitches are one of the only mammals than can re-absorb their puppies if they feel conditions  are not right ( ie over stressed) for a safe birth and rearing. Once the puppies  have reached 46 days pregnancy,  the bitch  cannot absorb them any more.

Hope this helps :-)