I have recently been told that it is a good idea to give a bitch folic acid two months before mating a bitch. Is this true? Has any of you ever done it?

It's recommended that women start taking folic acid three months before they try to become pregnant, and for at least three months into the pregnancy so I don't see why it would be much different for dogs.

I know that one of the food companies have now included Folic Acid in their "Reproduction" diet.
According to research it helps prevent cleft palates etc!?

Must say when the rep told me about the wonderful results she has had with it you just think "yeah yeah", and when she said her bitch was full of milk 2 weeks before whelping i thought "yeah yeah".

Anyway i am trying it. My bitch is on week 8 and has been full of milk for last week or so. Lets now see how the pup's get on with it, but so far so very good!

All my girls have folic acid from 6 weeks before their season right up to a week after whelping.  You also can't over dose on it, as anything the body doesn't need, comes out in their wee! :-)

Is Folic Acid a water soluable vitamin, I have read about it preventing `cleft palate` but didn`t know it stimulated milk production. My bitch is due to whelp in 2 weeks, is it too late to start do you think?

Thanks Sharon I`m always wary about overdosing vitamins

I don't think it helps with milk stimulation my girl had a c-section at christmas, didn't get a drop of milk and she had folic acid from 6 weeks before right up to 2 weeks post whelping.

Sorry No didnt mean to imply that the folic acid was responsible for the milk production, just the product as a whole. (Which has folic acid in it.)