What to feed a pregnant yorkie?
 

I've been reading around and people are suggesting that I should feed my dog cottage cheese, but others are saying that calcium would actually cause birth defects. One of my friends are telling me that dogs shouldn't eat anything dairy as it would give them heartworms.

At the moment, we're feeding her Wellness Core Ocean mix. Some breeders are saying that I should immediately switch her to puppy food for the high fat content.

At the same time, people are saying I shouldn't feed anything with high fat content as it would cause the puppies to become big and delivery would be difficult. What would you guys suggest?

(I know I have already made a thread about my dog being pregnant, but I know it's not going to be checked daily. Instead I'll take the resources that I have gathered and compile it all there later on :) ).

Is the Wellness core a all life stage food? I know the small breed Wellness is and that is what I feed all mine. I free feed also. I start giving mine a little extra food around 30 days. Just a little canned food mixed with some dry. I have also been using the natural balance roll food. They love it for treats too. I can go to the kitchen and slice a piece and mine go wild.

I have heard a little cottage cheese will not hurt...maybe a couple spoons a day. Unless your gril can't handle dairy..some can't. You don't want to give them a calcuim supplement like in pill form.

I was just talking to another lady that had a litter the other day. This was her second litter. With the first the girl did fine. Her vet told her to give her bitch Pet tab calcuim pills all through this pregency. She listened to him because he is a vet. The girl had a horrible time having this litter and they were twice the size of her last litter. I think it was the calcuim.

I start feeding puppy caned mixed with the solid gold about day 30 too. I don't start any calcium rich food until labor, but i do give her a couple of teaspons of plain yogurt a week. once she has whelped I start her in whelping pudding it worked wonderful with my first litter and my mentor does that too.. I also free feed so is kibble available to them all day long..:D, best of luck..
hugs,
CArmen in nj

I keep ALL my breeding dogs, male and female, on dry puppy food all the time. i also free fed. When my girl is going into her last month, I add a couple of meals a day of wet puppy food. The last two weeks, I add a tablespoon of cottage cheese once a day. I didn't do that with my last litter and had disasstrous results with the mama so I am back to the old tried and true method for me. There are people that don't agree but it is what has worked for me so I'm sticking to it.:)

I believe (please correct me if I'm wrong) that dogs absorbs calcium much differently from foods high in calcium than it does from a pill supplement. Foods high in calcium (cottage cheese) are recommended but not calcium pill supplements.

I also use puppy food on pregnant dams and add cottage cheese. During whelping I offer vanilla ice cream or whelping pudding. I have heard that with high quality foods it is not necessary to switch to the puppy food, but I do anyway.

I asked my Vet when my Taffy was prego and he told me that the body reacts by slowing the calcium production if is supplemented from outside, in high quantities, and recomended the plain yogurt a couple of times a week and then increase it after the pups were born.. so that is what I do .. other people might do different and might do things a lot different, this is just what works for me.:)
hugs,
CArmen in nj

This site explains it well. Foods work better than suppliments because they have other ingredients that help with the absorption of calcium, such as phosphorus and Vitamin D.

food and calcuim
 

[QUOTE=Sugar's Mom;2821231]I keep ALL my breeding dogs, male and female, on dry puppy food all the time. i also free fed. When my girl is going into her last month, I add a couple of meals a day of wet puppy food. The last two weeks, I add a tablespoon of cottage cheese once a day. I didn't do that with my last litter and had disastrous results with the mama so I am back to the old tried and true method for me. There are people that don't agree but it is what has worked for me so I'm sticking to it.:)[/QUOTE

Agree completely.... What ever you feed mom is what the puppies will need to transition to once weened.... So, find a really good quality puppy food and keep her on that... It seems to aid in digestion when the puppies begin eating it (on a molecular level the food formula is passed through the milk)....

Be careful with calcium supplements as calcuim is funny in the way it aids in whelping... If the body assumes calcium will be provided at high levels, it will inhibit ability of the body to naturally increase production to produce contractions... The cottage cheese is just enough to give a bit of increased calcium plus enzymes that help out....