my girl should be 4 weeks in whelp tomorrow, this will be her 2nd and last litter.
what is confusing me is that with her last litter she didnt start to show until about 6 weeks into pregnancy, this time she is huge at only 4 weeks im wondering if it is possible to feel pups at this stage as her belly feels full of golf balls lol last time it was 6 weeks b4 we felt pups or would it be more likely that she managed to get to male b4 we knew about it

I think only you and / or whoever looks after her can answer the question of whether she could have got to a male early!

Some bitches seem to get bigger earlier in a second pregnancy.  The last bitch that I bred from looked really big at 4 weeks, I was worried she was going to have a huge litter, but she didn't look so vast later in her pregnancy.  She went on to have 11.

You could perhaps take her to an experienced scanner who may be able to tell you how many pups there are and might be able to tell you how far gone she is.  How many pups did she have last time?

she had 8 pups last time, but then as my OH just pointed out last time she went off her food the first few weeks, this time she is eating for england lol so maybe that could explain why she gotten so big so early lol

:-D That could very well be the reason why.

Bitches do vary from litter to litter, the first litter my bitch had is what I would call a normal size, her second, she was literally like an elephant, very early on just as yours is now, I was worried she was going to have 12 or so pups she was so big, she only had one extra pup to last time though, but she was humungous the next litter her size was somewhere inbetween, so don't worry sometimes they do show earlier.

Bit worrying that you may feel she was mated earlier, you need to be sure on these things, if you think that is a possibility take her for a scan.

The earliest I've ever felt pups was at 5 weeks.  This was after taking my girl to a working test, it was as though they were all joining in in the swimming.  I ahve never felt pups kick that early before but they definitely were and kicked away for the next three and a half weeks!!

Hi

I could see my bitch was in whelp at 2 weeks as she was so big. This was her second litter. She continued to be big and I was terrified she was going to have huge pups or lots. In fact she had 3 average size pups exactly the same as the first time. 

I was told they are bigger the next time around as everything is a little looser

Wendy

When one of my bitches had her first litter, at 5 weeks she was like a " beached whale"  and could also eat for england, but with her second litter she was almost 7 weeks before for frame swelled...Bless. On both accounts she had 8 puppies and the same gender amount: 3 boys and 5 girls. If I were you I would book her in for a scan and good luck for the big day!!!
Helen

thanks for the advice guys, it would have helped if i hadnt counted the weeks wrong :rolleyes: i marked in my diary the exact date she was mated but have been so up the wall recently i seem to have lost a week somewhere it was only when i was checking my diary for something else that i found she is actually 5 weeks today lol im so bloody dillitary at times , maybe this explains her size alot more lol

hi all,
My girl is 6 weeks in whelp with her 2nd litter as i explained in a earlier post. she is absolutlely massive to the point she is now already the size she was full term with last litter  her teats have started to swell considerably. The thing that is puzzling me at the moment is that she has never been an over greedy dog to the point that she is the only dog i have doesnt guzzle her food as soon as its given, and is never bothered when any of us are eating.
We have gradually doubled her food intake which will be increased further as she progresses and have just started introducing puppy food to her diet ready for when pups are born.
The thing is that over the last few days since friday she had started guzzling her own food down, stealing food from the sides at everygiven opportunity and dancing around and whining whenever we eat and has even snatched food from our hands if we havent been quick enough to move  she didnt do any of this with her last litter which is why im wondering if this is normal behaviour for a dog in whelp or could something be wrong ?
any advice is greatly appreciated
thanks KwackerZ9

this has been put here as i was requested to do so, i apologise for starting a new thread but as my query was different to the one on this thread i thought thats what i was supposed to do, sorry again :(