Hi everyone i am new on this forum, my bitch is due her first litter on 5th Feb she had a scan the other day and we could see 7 puppies.  I am really excited but very nervous as well, i am use to dealing with foaling and lambing but this will be my first time whelping. I have bought the book of the bitch which i have found really helpful but any other advice would be very much appreciated will probably be on here quite a bit now quizzing everyone

If you are alone, then make sure a friend that has experience is there with you.  You can read and read and read, but when the time comes, trust me, you will forget 99% of it all, and could be a bit flustered.  It is always good to have some one else there with you.

Gosh, how exciting! My girl had her (and my) first litter on November 26th, she only had two though. I had planned to get my friend over but it all happened too quickly, she didn't give any of the classic signs of being close to giving birth. And in the end she managed it all fine with just me there. :-)

Luckily my husband is fantastic with the foaling and lambing so i am hoping he will be for the whelping, he is very hands on thank goodness! What food do you feed your pregnant bitches on and did any of you buy a whelping box or did you just make one

Of course I was only expecting 2 or 3 puppies, but I put her on the puppy variety of the food I feed them at about week 6, then increased it by 10% and split it into 2 meals in the last week. When the puppies were about 2 days old I started giving even more dry food, I think we were up to about twice her normal ration, plus 2 or 3 meals of beef mince, chicken, fish or eggs with biscuit mixer. I weighed her every week as well as the puppies and adjusted all her extras to suit. Now at 6 weeks the puppies are just about weaned and she's almost back to her maintenance diet, she's also having her normal exercise again to encourage the milk to dry up and the saggy undercarriage to tighten up again! :-)