Pregnant Whippet

[Millet 4,497]

I'm pretty confident it's slightly different for dog's..

[jf1970 328]

[Millet 4,497]

I'm sat pissing myself here and my stomach is killing me.. :laugh:

[jf1970 328]

but it must be true, 3 vets told him.

[Millet 4,497]

It's the pregnant wife post that has tickled me..

[jf1970 328]

oh right, I'm still trying to get over the other one

[thefensarefarbutistillgo 2,607]

It's the pregnant wife post that has tickled me..

lol I said I assume it's not the same with dogs but just thought I'd ask to see if anyone thinks otherwise, you never know perhaps if you gave a bitch that was only a few weeks pregnant some raw chicken carcusses that happened to be contaminated it might affect the pups ?

[skycat 6,174]

If the dog is used to a raw diet, then feeding chicken carcases can only be a good thing: much better than some rubbish dog food which is more wheat and soya than anything else. However, if the bitch has never had raw food, then start her off slowly on chicken wings: not just chicken wings obviously: they should form part of a balanced diet which includes red meat, tripe etc. Dogs are designed with digestive systems to cope with all sorts of bacteria which would kill us, but they still need to get used to different types of food if they've never been fed it before. If you want, I can sent you the chapter on feeding from Running Dog Maintenance. PM me your email and I'll send it.

[Millet 4,497]

If the dog is used to a raw diet, then feeding chicken carcases can only be a good thing: much better than some rubbish dog food which is more wheat and soya than anything else. However, if the bitch has never had raw food, then start her off slowly on chicken wings: not just chicken wings obviously: they should form part of a balanced diet which includes red meat, tripe etc. Dogs are designed with digestive systems to cope with all sorts of bacteria which would kill us, but they still need to get used to different types of food if they've never been fed it before. If you want, I can sent you the chapter on feeding from Running Dog Maintenance. PM me your email and I'll send it.

Good shout.. P ..

[northern lad 2,292]

If the dog is used to a raw diet, then feeding chicken carcases can only be a good thing: much better than some rubbish dog food which is more wheat and soya than anything else. However, if the bitch has never had raw food, then start her off slowly on chicken wings: not just chicken wings obviously: they should form part of a balanced diet which includes red meat, tripe etc. Dogs are designed with digestive systems to cope with all sorts of bacteria which would kill us, but they still need to get used to different types of food if they've never been fed it before. If you want, I can sent you the chapter on feeding from Running Dog Maintenance. PM me your email and I'll send it.

Penny,what do you think to the vets verdict of the pups size being attributed to overfeeding the bitch??

[skycat 6,174]

Well, I've heard this said too, but I've no concrete evidence to support the theory. Logic tells me that a fat, overweight bitch may well have more problems delivering the pups than a leaner, fitter bitch, and in theory, if too much food has been pumped into her while pregnant the pups could conceivably have bigger pups: women are advised not to overeat during pregnancy for that reason, so the same may well be true for bitches. I know that dogs and humans are very different, but I'd sooner keep the bitch slim until after the pups are born, then bang the good food into her while she's feeding pups. Of course she needs the right amount of quality grub to grow the pups properly inside her, but a wild animal is unlikely to eat more while pregnant so I tend to follow that logic.

 

I did have one bitch, long before I fed a raw diet, who would only eat whole rabbits and chickens, fur and feathers and all while she was pregnant. She would have starved herself before touching a bowl of biscuit/kibble. As soon as she'd had the pups she ate anything at all. She was lean, fit and had her litter of 12 pups with no problem at all. Nature knew best. But each bitch is different, and as long as she's getting the right nutrition in her food it doesn't matter how you feed, though the amount you feed is important.

 

Also, in my recent litter of terrier/whirrier, there was one smaller pup: this pup had overtaken it's littermates in size and weight within 24 hours: apparently where the pup is attached to the uterus inside the bitch can have a large influence on its birth size. But the smaller ones, providing they are not true runts, always catch up once they are born.

[mackay 3,450]

@ Northernlad, how many pups were actually in your litter?.

Anytime I've had a bitch sectioned or heard of it, it's usually been a small litter, fewer pups more room to grow.

Another point being that yours were bulldogs with heads possibly twice the size of the majority of lurcher pups and in my own experience if you get the head out the rest follows.

I have also heard people say not to overfeed a pregnant bitch for the reasons you say, I don't know if there is any truth in it, but a lot of bitches in the later stages of pregnancy have problems walking never mind hunting so in the wild they wouldn't be eating more, very likely less and supposedly their metabolism alters to allow for this.