I have a bitch due to whelp in 7 days, and she is really picky with her food, wont eat dried, doesn't like tinned, does like raw, but am loath to give her this with her being so close,  loves scrambled egg, and weetabix, garlic bread, should I be panicking, will I end up with miniscule puppies. In every other way she is fine. My next option is pilchards/sardines, has any one any suggestions please.  Just worried when the puppies are born will end up with a bitch that will fit through a grating.

If she fancies raw it'll do her no harm - and is far better for her than weetabix or garlic bread! I'd add some raw mince from the butcher to a good-quality puppy complete food. What you don't want is a flabby bitch at whelping time. It's high-quality protein she needs, or she'll simply use her own muscle tissue to build her pups. And give her lots of small meals - there's not a lot of room inside her for food, and she'll be getting quite uncomfortable after eating, which will also put her off.

She'll look like a rake anyway after the whelping partly because you've got used to her looking enormous and partly because her muscles will have relaxed and her belly will be loose and saggt, dragging everyhting downwards and making her spine and ribs prominent!

im in the same boat my girl was due yesterday ,she has been off her food for two days ,the vet said it's quite normal for them to be off food when they get near their time .as long as your girl is eating something i would not be to worried

One of mine would eat nothing but raw whilst in whelp. Why are you reluctant to give it to her? She knows what her body needs ;)

Hi all thanks for the replyies, will up her intake of raw as thats the only thing she really likes, she wont eat any dried at the moment so the raw would be pretty well all she is haveing along with the eggs.  She does love raw carrots, and tripe sticks.  As I say she looks brilliant and is fine in herself, so nothing to worry about really, just concerned pups and her aren't getting all they need.  will stop fussing now and await the day.  Thanks

Towards the end of her pregnancy,my girl would only eat raw minced steak,tinned tuna/sardines and cooked plain pasta.
I used to give her 1 meal in the morning of mince and pasta,1 in the aftternoon of tuna/sardines and pasta and a mix of all 3 in the evening.
I think you just have to go with whatever your girl wants,as my girl would have rather starved than eat anything else :)
Fussy so and so :)

My girl was never interested in her complete in the latter 2 weeks, she has always had fresh meat especially chicken and minced meat, I always soak my complete and add it to the fresh when she is in whelp as then she is getting all the goodness from the complete food too and the fresh meat that she craves.

I had a job getting my girl( cocker )to eat threw the whole of her pregnancy and hardly anything for the last week she turned out to have a big litter of 10 so mabe size of the litter has somthing to do with it ?

Every girl i have whelped has decided to change her own diet just before whelp 1 refused to eat anything for the laqst 3 days and i had to give her a milk supplement but they ate like pigs once they had whelped. I would give her the raw and definetly cut out the weetabix and garlic bread keep the eggs though.

With my girl if the only thing they decided to eat was eggs i would scramble them and use a milk replacer instead of cows milk. I dont give any milk replacers to the mums once they have whelped just a complete puppy and a chicken breast (no bones) i will only give it if they are refusing to eat (milk that is).

You cant force an animal to eat but you can tempt them with stuff you know they cant refuse.

Same here, my cocker refused to eat for the last 6 WEEKS of her pregnancy, I would say what she had ate since 3 weeks post mating till the end you could fit on a dinner plate.

My vet wasn't worried, he told me she would make up for it once she had whelped........and yes she did!

Just a quick update, my bitch had 7 babies at the weekend, all lovely chunky puppies and she looks great, so much for all the worrying over the eating (not).  Also they were 4 days early.   Well chuffed.