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Originally Posted by jvdb  There are four. Mom is free fed on Orijen dog food (one of the best brands you can buy), and also given a large portion of cottage cheese four times a day, so I think I am doing everything right with her since she has access to unlimited high quality food as well as extra calcium.
As far as number of meals for the babies, I feed them as soon as I get home from work and then 1 or two more times that evening, they nurse quite often on mom, every 1-2 hours. |
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.
These have just been my experiences, and I’ve been very fortunate at being able to keep it under control. Hope my experiences can help someone else.