Hi,
    As some of you are aware my bitch gave birth 3 days ago.
She is refusing to eat much at all,we have tried her with most things(we usually feed raw) even cakes,biscuits just to try and get her to eat something!!
The pups are feeding from her,but she refuses to much more,so i am cleaning them etc...
My question is,we are weighing the pups after every feed and they are constantly loosing weight(i know this happens for the 1st day or so) we cannot express much milk from her ourselves,about everyother feed they are content and falling asleep on her,but some of the time they are not satisfied and crying 1 hour after last feed(we are feeding every 11/2-2 hours(well whenever pups cry)
Can anyone offer any advice,tips as i would hate to loose any pups!
I would say every other meals their bellies are fat but still have lost weight when we weigh them
Your advice would be greatly appreciated.

                                                               sam

Hi Sam i can't offer much advise myself, but it does sound like your doing a good job of taking care of the pups aswell as mum,.  Has she had a check up by your vet yet to make sure everything's okay? 

Warm regards Susan

Have you tried feeding your bitch warm meaty broth? (no salt ;) ) this should tempt her to eat and the liquid will be good for producing milk ;)    It's possible she is confused by the pups, if she's a new mum, but it may be wise to have the vet check her just in case something is amiss. 

You could try rubbing sunflower oil on the pups bottoms (or butter, or honey ;) ) to encourage her to clean them, sometimes this helps.
The milk is brought in by demand, if the pups are hungry and feed often then this causes more milk to be produced, so make sure she is drinking ;)

It sounds as if the pups are not with mum (we are feeding every 11/2-2 hours(well whenever pups cry) perhaps she would be more involved with them if they were with her?  or ishe not able to be with them for some reason?

I assume she and the pups have been visited by the vet to make sure everything's okay?

Remember that your bitch's innards have been pushed and squashed all over the place in the past few weeks, and are now settling back to their correct positions. This can be very uncomfortable, so appetite is often lost. Make sure you offer her plenty of liquid nourishment instead of solid - she desperately needs fluids - and then when she's taking that offer some light, easily dogested food - scrambled egg and rice, or similar. Hopefully she'll come right very soon.

Hi,
    Thanks for replies(more needed please)
Pups are in a seperate box inside whelping box,mom knows she should be doing something and does know she needs to feed them,but doesnt like them too much???(our breed is bullmastiff and they can be abit funny at times)
She has snapped at one of the pups if it comes too close to her face,doesnt want to clean them(and have tried honey,jam etc...but she still doesnt want too)
She doesnt dislike pups as she always sits by them in box and does come running if they cry(but then just stands there as if to say what now?)
This is her 1st litter.
As i said before my main concern is that she doesnt have enough milk with not eating??should the pups be starting to gain weight by now?as they are not!
Have a great well known breeder behind us all the way for advice,but the more ideas and help the better.
I dont really want to resort to bottle feeding but i dont want any pups dying either!!!!HELP!

                                    Sam

Yes she has had a vet check as she was given oxytocin for last two pups(which were dead:( )
Here temperature is fine and she is ok in herself apart from not eating

Are you staying in the same room as her and the whelping box? Some bitches are so overwhelmed by this strange happening that they'd rather be with their people as usual.

Sam for the milk to come in properly teh bitch shoudl basically be in with the pups 24/7 for the first few days, with only the briefest of toilet trips.  During this tiem pups should be suckling very often (in a large litter soem will be on her constantly.

You should praise the pups and tell jer what a clever girl she is.  I fyou realy think she might hurt them then muzzle her, but she needs to be there with pups all the time,a nd discouraged fromleaving them.  This may mean someopne staying with her all the time to ensure this.

Are you actually feeding them as really after the third day I would want weight to be increasing not decreasing, generally it shoudl not fall after the first day.

Hi,
    Yes we are sleeping and staying in the same room as her.She is with the pups,they are just in a seperate shallow box so she can see them at all times.Any more ideas on what food might tempt her and is good for producing milk?
Typical before pregnancy she ate like a horse and now she eats nothing.

Try scrambled egg, fresh chicken with rice or fresh mince meat with rice, to get her appetite going again my bitches always thrieved on this after pups, and then get her on a good complete puppy food it will carry all the vitamins and minerals that she needs to feed herslef and her pups. The pups need to be suckling though to help stimulate the milk!  Have you tried placing the pups on her teets? Hope all goes well, and that she will enjoy one or two of the above foods. Otherwise you will have to raise the pups by hand.

And don't forget, the puppies need the stimulation of a bitch's licking to urinate and defaecate (mimic by stroking tummies, towards bottom, with damp cotton wool)
Best of luck

Keep an eye on her and check her tempreature each day.
I have just had the same with a goldie bitch who produced 9 pups{small}, had oxytocin inj's because I was certain there was something still left.
After 6 days of telling vets that something was wrong{puppies not putting weight on,Lack of discharge from the bitch, basically i wasnt happy.
She had an xray, antibiotoics ect ect and on day 6 she collapsed, temp 104.5 and rising, it turned out she had a puppy still inside which was about 7 weeks gestation, she was spayed and I was left with the task of handrearing them.
It looked like all 9 pups were from the right horn.
Go with your instinct,
If she ate the afterbirths then they should be enough for a few days as long as she has water.
boiled fish and rice is a nice meal for a few days as it shouldnt upset her too much.
emma x

I`d try what Dill suggested, liquid broth, I make mine by boiling whole chicken, when its cooled de-bone it then offer her the liquid thruought the day, you can see if she`ll eat the meat from it later. Porridge oats & grated carrot are said to be good for producing milk :)

good luck sam

Hello, by day 3 i would definately be looking for weight gain and would be worried if they are losing weight.  Daisys pups seemed to be feeding almost consantly in the first week, is there any way you could leave the pups in the whelping box with mum so that they can make their way to her whenever they want, but have someone close by to keep an eye on her, i used a baby monitor in the first few weeks so if you hear anything you can dash back. The more the pups feed the more milk she will have, i know this is a very nerve wracking time but i would suggest weighing once a day at the same time, too much intervention from us can actually confuse their natural instinct to care for the pups.

Good Luck

Clair

If the puppies a\re in a separate box they cannot get to trheir mother - the bitch will not produce milk unless the pups suckle.

Perhaps as they are in a separate box she feels they aren't really hers, or she doesn't know how to get to them ;)   With my own bitch I used a small shallow box near her front end (+towel wrapped around a hot water bottle) while she was busy whelping, to keep them warm, but she wouldn't have been happy if they had stayed in the box, that would have stressed her ;) She spent most of the first 2 weeks snuggled up with them, I had to coax her out to the toilet, feed her in there, put water in there for her ;)

Is there any reason why they aren't just in the whelping box? 

Is the whelping box too warm for her?  If you have a heat lamp/source then it could be she's uncomfortable under it ?

Exacty Fillis. Whenever I clean out the whelping box I put very young puppies in a box to keep them warm in one place for those few minutes whilst the bedding is being changed. There is no way on earth they could get to their mother from the box, and I use one with low sides. I bet this is the problem here.

I go the whole hog Christine :D 

Whole Chicken, Carrots, Rice/potato, pinch of thyme, no salt tho.  It smells exactly like my home made human soup, probably more tempting for that :)  I offer the broth and if that goes down, some of the deboned chicken and veggies later, yummy :D

NOTHING is better to bring in milk than the pups suckling. I have had 3 large litters and the mothers ate ate and drank really well, but if the milk isnt taken then the bitch will not produce more, The only time my pups are removed from their mother is to change the bedding and to be weighed, and I try to do this when she is on a toilet or feeding break. The pups should be with the bitch at all times - they are her puppies, and she should be aware of this.

*NOTHING is better to bring in milk than the pups suckling*

I agree totally Fillis :)

I add those as well (garlic also) but after the chickens cooked, in fact 1 time OH wasn`t well at same time as 1 of my dogs & they both got fed with it :D

Mines the same wether for humans or dogs :D

I agree with the others, suckling is the best thing to create and increase milk production.  Not all bitches eat for a few days after giving birth, if you think about it in the wild they would stay with their newborns constantly for a few days until hunger drove them out to find food.

I don't even try to put the pups in a separate box, in or out of the whelping box anymore as my bitches always try and get into the small box as well, I can sometimes get away with it by laying a box on its side so the dam can get her head in.

I would definitely get your bitch checked out in case she has an infection and try and keep the pups cuddled up to her so that she gets used to them and they can try and feed on demand.  This can be very stressful with a new mum and a worried owner so stay as relaxed as you can as if you are tense then she will pick up on it.