[fannie]

Originally Posted by Mardelin

This is what I posted. My girls are fed cottage cheese with their morning meal prior to breeding. But, never a calcium supplement plus an hour a day in the sunshine natural vitamin D.

Okay to hold it at bay, so it never comes at all… forget everything about giving tums, cottage cheese, cheese, icecream.. etc. It’s useless. The body needs the calcium to be delivered with the correct ratio of Vit D and Phosphorus or it doesn’t absorb it, it’s useless. Pet Cal has this correct ratio. Another thing that has it is, believe it or not.. a scrambled whole egg! Of course everyone knows not to start calcium until the litter is whelped.. no giving it to PG bitches… I do give some calsorb during whelping If things slow down on a larger litter, but never before whelping. Make it a general practice to scramble your bitch an egg every day, and depending on weight, give ½ to a whole pet tab per day. I gave it to a 8 lb bitch ½ in the morning ½ at night…this is the “daily dose” for about a 20 lb dog who was NOT nursing a litter…so just fine for ½ the size, but nursing a litter. I would grind up the pet tab in the food processor and put the powder in the egg when I scrambled it.

Also, check your dog food for Soybeans, soy protein, or anything related to soy in any way. For SOME reason that is not completely understood by me (many menopause supplements contain soy, or are soy based, so this seems to be a contradiction).. soy protein can interfere with the absorption of calcium in dogs. If your food has soy of any sort, change to a food that does not for the duration of the weaning of the litter.

Ok, I am just trying to make sure that I didn't have it messed up. I think that too many people think that feeding them food with calcium in it is the same thing as a calcium supplement. So when we say, don't supplement with calcium prior to whelping, they think it means don't give ANYTHING with calcium in it. And yes, I completely agree about it needing to be in a proper ratio of vitamin D. I'm going to have to go look at the nutritional value of an egg. I don't know why I never thought of that one. Thanks for the tip!