Hi all , my bitch is coming up to 6 weeks pregnant , she is still very active and seems to have got her appetite back with full force. Should i be putting her onto puppy biscuits now , if so how much - she weighs 35 kg? or should i just add some extra to her normal meals , she is currently fed jwb adult food. Any info greatly appreciated.
Lucy

I start with extra meals at 6 weeks. I have had one bitch that got really ill from being fed the puppy version of her food so I now take great care and watch how it goes -if needs be I use the normal food and just increase the number of meals.

I agree with the puppy food. I had a bitch that it upset despite slowly introducing it. But I checked the labels and the puppy and adult were very similar, olny 2% different in protein for example. So I just increased the normal food and it was fine. It does have to be good quality food though, this is an occasion when cheap and cheerful adult food won't do.

We increased our bitches normal food from 6 weeks :-)

I too start increasing the amount of food from six weeks
I split into 2 meals until 8 weeks and then split into 3, to ensure that a very pregnant bitch doesn't get too full and uncomfortable.

I prefer to give the increase as meat, egg, cheese and fish to her usual food.

>I prefer to give the increase as meat, egg, cheese and fish to her usual food.

Ditto.

my girl is only 5 weeks and is starving after her meals we feed twice aday and have given her a bit more in each meal she still looks for more after! i dont know if i should give her any more ? i dont want to make her over weight and she could be having any a small litter ,not sure what to do? x

The old adage is treat as normal until you are pretty sure that she is pregnant.
Even if it's only a singleton and is hard to detect, a well covered bitch would manage perfectly well with her normal intake.

my bitch is 6 weeks preg too and I've increased her normal food by another meal, but think I will put her on puppy food over the next few days too.

My girl is now 61/2 weeks in whelp.  She is also ravenous and I have increased her meals slightly over the past two weeks.  She will shortly be going on to RC starter and also having a small lunch.  I don't think she is having a large litter, but if she did, I would then give her 4 smaller meals throughout the day.

Thankyou all for your replies , i had her scanned today and the vet thinks she is having 11 babies - eek. Will this have any bearing on how much extra food i should be giving her , i am very wary of making her fat from food rather than puppies. I want her to be fit and well when it comes to the birth , this is her first litter.

I would put her on a quality puppy food very soon and gradually start to increase her food intake - making more smaller meals if she can't cope with large ones.  You can always add meat, fish or egg to add variety.  I think at this stage you would not make her fat with however much you fed her if she is carrrying that number of puppies.
My girl who is expecting around same time as yours had 11 in her first litter and did amazingly well.  She's had a 2 year break and not having so many this time around.
Wishing you luck for delivery.

Our girl had 11 last year, she was eating loads towards the end of pregnancy, she whelped in 4 and a half hours total, was starving afterwards, never lost her appetite, but still looked like a hat rake by the time the pups were weaned! :-D

Mine was very thin afterwards too, I think you just have to feed good quality food more than quantity as if you feed too much it just goes straight through them without giving them much goodness.
This time round, I will be keeping her on puppy food until pups have well gone - as Brainless has mentioned previously - in the hope she doesn't totally lose her coat!!

> in the hope she doesn't totally lose her coat!!

Unfortunately that is hormonal and they will loose every stitch and look like a cruelty case, but good food will allow the new coat to come in faster and be a good quality coat.

In my breed occasionally the first coat after a litter can be a funny texture, slightly wavy around the neck and shoulders (not desirable) but have found this goes after the next moult, but when continuing to feed higher nutrient dense food have found the new coat came in properly. 

Could be coincidence, but works for mine, still takes five months from birth before they are really showable though.