HOW TO FEED A BITCH IN WHELP

Dear Jubilee:

My bitch is in whelp, and I need information on how to feed her and what supplements that she needs. She normally eats a raw diet.

Taking Care of Mom

Dear Taking Care of Mom,

We pretty much follow Ian Billinghurst,  Grow Your Pups With Bones,  for our pregnancy and lactation diets. He generally says that if the bitch has been on a good raw diet, then for the first two thirds of her pregnancy, she just remains on her basic raw diet. He does warn that you should not give her cod liver oil during that part of the pregnancy because it can harm the developing fetuses.

During the last half of the pregnancy, he says to feed more food, and we do. Especially during the last third of the pregnancy. His rule of thumb is to increase the amount of food fed each week, beginning at about week six, by 5 to 10 percent, so that by week eight she is eating up to 1 1/2 times what she had in early pregnancy. He also says to gradually reduce the meal size and increase meal frequency so that by week eight, she is getting three or four meals a day, with each meal being about half the size of what she got each day when she was not pregnant. At this time, I also start giving her a small piece of calf's liver each day as a treat.

For the last third of the pregnancy, he says to increase the nutrients essential for growth. During this time, he suggests adding extra protein, extra vitamins, extra essential fatty acids, and extra minerals (but NO calcium). To increase the nutrient density, he says to increase foods like muscle meat, eggs, liver, kidneys, essential fatty acid oils, and to reduce her raw meaty bones to about 25 percent of the overall diet or even cut out bones all together. He says to feed fewer veggies and fruit. And he recommends adding extra kelp, vitamin E, multi B and vitamin C. At this time, he says you can begin to include a small amount of cod liver oil.

During the last week of pregnancy, he says to gradually reduce the total amount of food fed, so that a couple of days before whelping, she is getting about half of the increased amount that you were feeding during week eight. He also says to increase the amount of veggies, almost totally eliminate the bones, and reduce the meat and offal. By the time she whelps, she may be getting only a quarter of what she got in week 8. Remember to reduce the supplements proportionately as well.

When the bitch is whelping, we do let her eat all of the placentas. We believe that this is part of the natural process for a bitch -- we also understand that it is a concentrated food, full of protein, full of blood-forming and milk-forming elements. We also believe that they help let her milk down.

Billinghurst says to feed the lactating bitch as much as she wants. While she is nursing, she needs lots of liquids (including the fortified yogurt mix – see below) to make milk; she needs mineral rich food high in calcium to make the milk; and she needs energy foods. We feed about four meals a day -- sometimes just raw meaty bones, and we give the milk mixture (see below) in addition to her meals, and sometimes a mush of raw meaty bones mixed with some veggies and her supplements). At first, she may refuse whole bones, so we stock up on ground raw meaty bones for the first couple of weeks and use them instead of raw meaty bones. If we don't use it all because she starts wanting whole bones again, we save the ground raw meaty bones (keep them frozen) for weaning the puppies. While nursing, the bitch needs lots and lots of raw meaty bones.

We also make the meat-veggie mush with ground raw meaty bones while she is lactating. And we make that mush with 80 percent ground raw meaty bones and 20 percent pulverized veggies.

We make a variation of the Billinghurst fortified milk mixture. His recipe is to mix one cup of milk, one teasp of honey, one or two teaspoons of flax seed oil, one raw egg or two egg yolks and one or two junket tablets. Blend it all in a blender and let it come to body temperature by suspending the container in hot water. Keep the mixture at body temperature for 10 minutes to allow the junket to work. This is way too much work for us, and the junket tablet does not always work. So we make a milk mixture with a cup of plain yoghurt, a teasp of raw honey, some salmon oil, two egg yolks, and some water. Our bitches love this, and it is quick and easy to mix up. We use it to tempt them to eat during the first day after whelping, and then I continue to give it to them a couple of times a day all the time they are nursing. Sometimes to use it instead of one of the four meals, we mix in some oatmeal flakes that have soaked overnight, and they love it this way as well.

To keep her drinking lots of fluids, we mix chicken broth or beef broths with her water, sort of 50-50. And we give this to her fresh many times during the day.

When the puppies are approaching seven or eight weeks of age, we reduce the bitch’s total food intake over a few days from all she has been eating down to the amount she ate when she was not pregnant; we cut out the raw meaty bones and the milk mixture; and we restrict her water to non-flavored water and only let her have access to it for about 10 minutes several times a day. We up the veggie content of the mush to about 75 percent and reduce the meat without bones to about 25 percent, and weI reduce the oil and kelp and eggs. She can have recreational bones for chewing on. If the milk does not dry up on this regimen, we fast her for a day. After the fast, she resumes her normal raw diet with all the raw meaty bones, the essential fatty acids, the protein etc.

Jubilee