Hi everyone, i'm getting really confused with what to feed my 4 week pregnant bitch and would  be grateful for some advice. I have received conflicting advice on whether to feed puppy food or stick to a larger quantity of her normal food and am getting confused!  She is currently fed Eucanuba but having researched the Eucanuba puppy food further I have noticed that the puppy/junior variety should not be given to pregnant or lactating bitches due to the mineral content.  Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Hi When my bitch was pregnant, I was advised to keep her feed the same until she reach 6 weeks gestation, then start to increase her food by 20 per cent then to 50 per cent etc:
I fed my girl on Burns complete, but also fed her, cottage cheese, fish, raw red meats, and also right near the end of her gestation I gave her Litterlac milk and kept her on litterlac milk while she nursed her pups.
She had six healthy happy pups!!
Oh and I did give her burns puppy complete food a week or so before she had the babies xx

My vet says to mix puppy food in half and half with her regular food.  Also, to add cottage cheese during the last couple weeks.
But my breeder friend (who has been in my particular breed for over 30 years....so I put a bit more weight into what he has said) is to just increase the food intake of regular food, with no puppy food, until after the pups arrive. 

Probably not much help, but it just goes to show you that people who mean well, often have conflicting opinions. 

She had six healthy happy pups

Your bitch probably would have anyway even without all the extras but her condition wouldn't have been good post whelping. It gives her fat reserves to call on during lactation too.
A bitch on a good healthy, well balanced diet only needs a bit more protein when she has a medium to large litter and mostly for the reasons above. Good owners and breeders are keeping their dogs in peak condition already.
When I was pregnant I was so sick that I went down to 6 stone at 7mths and could only have fluids. The amount of calories I was surviving on was tiny but none of my doctors seemed to be the least bit concerned as to whether my baby would grow ok. My GP said that babies were like parasites and will suckup any reserves you had and although I was shrinking he was growing. He popped out at 8lbs all chubby and well. His 6ft 2in now and has never been ill in his life.

Meant to add: Ive just got back from Greece where there were lots of dogs 'free-ranging'. Some had puppies( 1 litter of 8). They managed to produce live babies but will lose many post whelping due to poor nutrition's effect on lactation. Oh ....and being killed on the road of course!!

Hi  Your bitch will need only her normal amount of food until she is about 6 weeks pregnant.  She probably won't even have the correct appetite to eat more than her normal amount until then.  About six weeks the appetite increases somewhat and that is usually the time to increase the amount and the quality of the food which you are feeding her.  Basically I have always found that the best thing to do is to put her on to Puppy food increasing it slowly over the period of 4 or 5 days.  Puppy food normally has a much higher protein content and this will also help her keep a bit of her condition during the last three weeks of her pregnancy.  After all this is the period in which the pups grow the most.  It is better though to start feeding the bitch about 3 to 4 meals per day as with the ever increasing size of the pups, there probably won't be so much room in her stomach for her to hold more than a small meal at a time.  Some bitches need to be fed even more than that.  IT depends really on how much the pups are putting pressure on her internal organs and this obviously also depends on the number and the position of the pups in the  uterus.    I always find with my bitches that they want that even more spaced out during the day so I even share that out in 5 or 6 meals.  I usually increase them to about 50% more than their original diet but with higher protein puppy food.  I don't supplement anything else as I find that everything they need is already in the puppy.

Sometimes bitches can get a bit picky during this period though and they don't always want to eat what you offer them.  I had one who would only eat if I also added some other goody.  Sometimes you need to dock up their food a little, so sometimes I add a little bit of cottage cheese.  Just a little though as this is very high in calcium and you don't want to supplement calcium too much before the puppies are born.  Some breeders do supplement during pregnancy I know but there is a risk in doing this as excess calcium can lead to the shut down of the bitches parathyroid gland which causes the body to naturally excrete calcium.

You might find in the fifth week that she will go off her food a bit.  This is a bit like morning sickness in women.  Usually you find that they don't want to eat first thing in the morning and that you need to entice them with something more tasty around 11am.

You need to be careful though not to overfeed her.  Overfeeding can cause intestinal problems such as loose motions.

Do you know how many puppies she is expecting yet ?  Have you had her scanned ?

I don't put my bitches on to puppy food when they are in whelp, I change them over to a food for very energetic/working dogs were the protein level is higher but the fat level is also much higher too.

I was going to add that Christine !  That instead of puppy food you could use a good food for working dogs.  Important I think is that it is of a high quality.  I also sometimes tend to just add some extra meat to the food as one of my bitches has a very particular intestine and can get a bit loose in her movements.  This is also why I am so careful with the cottage cheese.

I have only had one litter, but have spent an awful lot of time reading and been lucky to have the advice of breeders with over 60 years combined experience themselves.

I feed Iams, which is made by the same company as Eukanuba, and they and my vet suggested changing to the puppy/junior food once pregnancy was confirmed. I did this, but didn't increase the amount until 6 weeks. To be honest, by then, and especially in the last two weeks, I was lucky if I got my bitch to eat anything at all, so I did add some tinned sardines in tomato sauce to her food to tempt her (also the only thing she would touch!) and to make sure she ate her wormer. I just fed her up to 10 small meals a day, as much as she would eat really, and there is no way I could have got the calories I needed into her on adult food.

She was very fit and healthy before pregnancy, and onyl came out of it slightly thin, I'd say maybe a couple of kilos less than she usually weighs. Just before whelping she had gained 9 kilos, and had 9 big, healthy pups, all survived and all are thriving at 4 weeks old.

You do have to be careful not to feed excesss calcium during whelp, as it tricks the body into thinking that it doesn't need to produce much calcium, so after whelping causes problems, and according to my vet is linked to Eclampsia. You also nee dot be careful not to feed liver, as it has a high Vit A content, which can cause birth defects such as cleft palate.

The liver is an interesting one Jackson.  I feed it sometimes during pregnancy but in very very small quantities.   After whelping though I do feed it more as I personally have found that it has been a great boost on milk production.  The bitch I have with pups at the moment was also really difficult to get her to eat throughout her pregnancy and it did worry me considerably.  I was feeding very small amounts of whatever I could get her to eat mixed in with her food.  It was a very worrying time for me too as I kept wondering if she was getting everything she needed and thought that she would come out of it all so thin after whelping (the whelps don't care how much protein etc the mum is eating, they just take the amount they need through the umbelical cord and if it leaves the mum with nothing at all they don't care ).  I was surprised that she had also lost very little after the pups were born.  She had gained a little over 1 kilo during pregnancy(small breed) and gave birth to five fat healthy pups and lost only about 200 grams on her original weight.

Maybe sometimes we worry too much.  I think that the bitches know themselves what they need and how much they need etc.  Instead we worry ourselves sick if she is eating enough and getting enough for herself and the pups.

That is what I do once pregnancy conformed bitch goes onto what I will be feeding the pups, but at normal amounts, and increase after the 6th weeks so by whelping she is getting 50% more than she was for maintenance, though in calorific terms it will be higher, because the food is higher in fat and protein.

Makes weaning pups easier too, as only need one type of food for both bitch and pups, bitch can safely clear up what they leave without getting upset stomach etc.

I personally don't up the food that much at all. In the last week only where I add more fresh meat etc.  Never had one problem.  As soon as the pups are born they get the normal food and loads of fresh meat on demand.   Of the litters I have had never any dead whelps born and no problems with he mothers condition.   (Only had 1 dead pup 24 hours after but he came too early from an early elected section).

As soon as the pups are born if they are feed plenty food in good quality they have no reason to rely on any stored energy or fat.

As soon as the pups are born if they are feed plenty food in good quality they have no reason to rely on any stored energy or fat

Sorry that didn't read right, I mean as soon as the pups are born if the BITCH is fed plenty of good quality food in good quantities they do very well and they are not over weight.

I actually soak good quality complete food and add checken breast meat to it and blend the lot.  Just my method and the bitches are bursting with milk.  By blending the food they take in quite a lot but it doesn't look like a massive amount.

I would think that the breed, the condition of the mother and the number of puppies she is carrying would have a bearing here.
I have a pregnant bitch of a toy breed, carrying only 2 pups and already 'generously covered'. Stepping up her food intake by this amount would be over-kill  and she would eat 'til she popped.
Now if were a bitch from my other breed.... big, slim, muscular girls with the tendency to have medium to large litters then I  let them eat as much as they wanted ( not greedy dogs) in the last 2 weeks.
In answer to the poster, I would think that someone knowledgable from your own breed would be very useful to you now and in the next few weeks.

Exactly - I always seem to have had large litters for my breed and have increased food intake once I have known that the bitch has been in whelp and that it is in fact a large litter. In the main I have let the bitch be my guide - she lets me know when she is hungry over and above normal meal times, and each time the bitches have been more out of condition than thin when the puppies left, with just a little "firming up" needed.

Hi and thanks everyone for your replies.  She has had one previous litter of 10 and despite the fact she was in great condition pre whelp, we had difficulty tempting her to eat for a couple of days before/after whelping and she dropped a lot of weight which had an impact on her milk production.  We obviously want to avoid this happening again this time so it sounds like the higher protein food would be of benefit.  Does anyone know who makes a good working dog food and is this of a similar protein/fat content as puppy food?  I have taken her to the vet today for a check up but scanner was unavailable so have to go back next week.

I use Nutro and move the bitch to  Nutro Extra (Forgotten it's name :rolleyes:) for working dogs.   I'm very pleased with the ingredients, protein & fat levels in this food and then the pups go onto Nutro puppy after Pedigree puppy porage.  

Spugsy, you & I agree on an awful lot!  ;)

I also use nutro puppy

I use Arden Grange Prestige, and I like to feed this to the pups too.

I use the Bitch Diet and yes that's what it's called :d

Would love to know more about the "Bitch Diet"!

It is made by vitalin.  Must admit have never tried it because the vitalin range were in the past the early muesli type foods and not well thought of.

I have never used it because one of it's 'claims' is to increase fertility and after 3 litters of 14 pups, I don't want fertility increased, I want it decreased!

I used the Bitch diet with my first SWd litter and she had 3 !!!!
Next two litters fed my normal raw diet with good old laughing dog biscuit, both litters had 7...
Do feed them whatever puppy food I decide on once theyve whelped tho plus their normal raw diet and goats milk...have used Nutro puppy and James Wellbeloved and they ate it...Purina pro plan they hated it ended up throwing it away and putting them on Nutro...

We use Arden Grange. Between week 5 and 6 the bitch is changed over to puppy food, which is then slowly increased. I find the girls vary. One was quite happy to continue eating it dry, but one became quite picky! She had it lightly soaked with a sardine mixed up or a little mackeral. After whelping, I free feed puppy food, sardines and organic chicken.  If I think they may have lost any condition at all, I will also feed the odd sausage, only odd one though.  The salt makes them thirsty at which point, they love a drink of bitches replacement milk once every couple of days. I find this plus lots of water (!) keeps high milk production. The bitch regains condition quickly to cope with the increasing demands on her. The pups thrive also.  I know many would think this is not necessary, but I like to know I have done everything possible. I also encourage new owners to continue giving the milk to the pups until they are about four months old. (or until they don't want it).
Its so interesting to read all the different ways people go about their rearing. Its also nice to see many people helping others. 

im just wondering why you would encourage the new owners to carry on giving replacemant milk when the pups would have been weaned a couple of weeks before they left home? weaned off milk by you and more importantly the DAM herself

The first time I fed my Spanish it and she just had the normal litter of 5.  Last time I ended up with nothing and I must admit I'm also not a big Vitalin fan but this food isn't bad.  Though usually like Jenny prevouisly I just continued on my usual raw food diet and never had any problems.  With the Pom's we just continue the normal feeding regime but with a little bit extra. 

If you are feeding good food already that should be enough. 

Thanks everyone for your advice.  It is great to hear all the different opinions and that people take the time to pass their knowledge and experience on.