45 days pregnant and being picky with food!

[ornamental]

My 3 yr. old yorkie, Mercedes, is expecting her 1st litter. I took her to the vet yesterday and the x-ray showed 3 puppies. She is 45 days old and had no problems eating puppy food until about 4 days ago. Now she won't eat the puppy food. So I boil and shred chicken and mix it with the puppy food and even add cottage cheese. She ate it all at first but now she just eats the chicken and pushes the puppy food aside. She will eat scrambled eggs, too. I have fed her both the soft and dry puppy food but she just doesn't want to eat it. She is being very picky. Is this normal? It also seems like she doesn't have much of an appetite because when she does eat, it's very very little.

[LunasMomma]

Hi Welcome to YT!!!

I'm not a breeder but I have read here for a few years now, and I think everything you describe sounds pretty normal. Shoot, when I was pregnant and getting further into it, my stomach couldn't hold much food because the baby was squishing it Maybe that's what's happening to your little girl. I also got picky Hopefully some of the experienced breeders will come along soon and reassure you some

Best of luck to you and your little Momma, I hope her whelp is smooth and the puppies are nice and healthy

[carmen in nj]

yes, at this time in her pregnancy, is normal, my chanel gets picky about that time too when she was pregnant, I mix wet food with her puppy kibble to make it more atractive to her, I use the wet food so she can't push the kibble around. and I start feeding her smaller meals 4 times a day instead of 2 meals a day.
welcome to YT..

[Donnainohio63]

Sadie went through this stage and it got bad, she would not eat any kind of dog food and there was a member here by the name of Jim and also Nancy they both told me to try making her home made food. Boiled chicken with white rice and she loved it. Maybe you could try that

[KYJ 12]

Lexie became very picky around the time in her pregnancy as well. She also did the same thing when I tried to mix her kibble with food! I fed her some boiled chicken with brown rice and veggies with chicken broth and she loved it. She's back to eating her kibble 5 weeks after whelping with a healthy appetite again and even managed to keep on 2 lbs!! Wishing you a safe and healthy whelp!!

[MikaTallulah]

I feed Cozy 6 meals a day during her pregnancies.

[luckylady]

When my girls are pregnant, they get very picky, almost to the point of not eating much at all at about 3 weeks post breeding until about the 5th week of their pregnancy when they will finally start eating MUCH better!! Then at about 7 1/2 - 8 weeks they get a little picky again. I don't think it's picky as much as it is just the fact that their belly is so full of growing puppies, there is not as much room for food. That is when I will start feeding them less at each meal.............and add an extra feeding or two throughout the day.
Congrats on your upcoming litter & good luck to you!

[ornamental]

First of all, thank you to everyone who responded and tried to help. I guess I discovered the reason for her pickiness and loss of appetite...LOL!...and I promise to learn how to count the days accurately next time because she was obviously farther along than I thought.

My Mercedes gave birth to 3 very beautiful and healthy girls yesterday afternoon! (Pup #1 was 4 oz, pup # 2 was 4.2 oz, and pup #3 was 4.2 oz.) Momma and babies are doing fine. I wanna cry every time I see her in her whelping box with her babies because she is such a good mother. I am so proud of her!

This was her 1st litter. After all the reading and research I had done, she gave me "very few" signs that she was going into labor. She was big but didn't look full blown, full term to me. She started with being picky with food & loss of appetite (which is the reason for the original post) and a little bit of nesting behaviour, which she has always done with her bedding. She always had a habit of digging and moving her blankets around whenever she wanted to lay down. Other than than, NOTHING! She went into labor yesterday at 12:30pm and had her last pup at 3:10pm. I was with her and she did almost everything all by herself. She needed very little help from me and I am so proud of her!

What happened was, I walked into the whelping room and saw her on her stomach, butt kind of up in the air, and tail standing up! I immediately called the vet when I saw that she was actually having contractions and pushing because I thought she was going in to premature labor at 51 days!!! I was so worried! I wanted to pick her up and rush her to the vet but I was scared because I lifted her leg and saw the pup coming out. Puppy #1 was born while I was on the phone with the vet and I watched as she pushed for about 5 minutes. When the puppy came out, Mercedes went to work immediately, knowing exactly what to do! After she cleaned it up, I took it, weighed it, and it was evident that it was a healthy little girl and it was squirming and crying for it's momma. :-) I told the vet it looked healthy, weighed 4oz., and she said that was a good weight. She asked how Mercedes was doing and I told her she was doing great! She was busy cleaning the pup but looked relaxed. So the vet told me to let her have the rest of her pups (we were expecting 2 more) and she didn't think we would have anything to worry about because from the x-ray we took 6 days ago, the puppies all looked about the same size but keep the phone close by, so I did......and she was right.

Puppy # 2 was born an hour later without an complications or problems.
Puppy #3 did come out breech, took a little longer than I was comfortable with and just when I thought I need to intervene, Mercedes pushed her out. I immediately opened the sack around the head, wiped its face, used the suction thingy and Mercedes kept pushing my hand away because she wanted to do it. As soon as she was done with her umbilical cord, I could see the puppy wasn't breathing right. She was gasping, not breathing so I took her and cleared out mouth and nose again. I thought I was going to lose her and worked on her for over half an hour. She was never dead, just gasping for air. Finally, she started breathing right and was crying for her momma. (I weighed her today and she has already gained 2 oz. She squirms around quick and is the loudest of the 3 pups and is very unhappy when she doesn't feel her momma around and she will let you know! LOL!)

Thank goodness I already had everything set up for whelpiing and didn't have to run around like a chicken with it's head cut off! I wasn't expecting her to have the babies for another 2 weeks or so.

Most of all, I am so grateful for forums like Yorkie Talk where someone can come to get help, support and advice! I learned so much by reading EVERYTHING on here and I'm still learning. Thank you everyone!

Here are a few pictures of the puppies and one of Mercedes (pre-pregnancy). I promised her I wouldn't post a current pic until after she is able to pretty herself up. LOL!

[TraciG]

What a great update! Congrats.

[horsnaround]

Adorable congrats again

[carmen in nj]

Congratulations, they are gorgeous..
hugs,

[teasell]

tell Mercedes she is adorable and a good mommie. Sweet, sweet babies

[PrincessSophie1]

That was a beautiful story ornamental!! I am so happy to have read your testimony just now! My Sophie isn't due until end of August, early September and she is being a very picky eater and I was just researching what to do to get her to eat! So with the tips and recipes here, now I have something to go on. I would really like for her to eat her dry puppy food she just started today, but she won't...:-) So I guess I'll save the puppy food for after she has the pups (4 to be expected)! Congratulations on your beautiful babies!

[scrapindee]

Congratulations. My vet said to save the puppy food and calcium rich food until mom whelps the puppies. Guess she was right--we had 4 healthy biewer puppies 5 weeks ago and mama is still nursing somewhat. Puppies are in the nursery, beginning to eat puppy food while continuing to nurse from mama.

[sorayaflyness]

Congrats! My Oksana is on her third week of pregnacy and she's ignoring the puppy food and chomping on the adult food I have for my other 2 yorkies, I will be buying her Royal Canine puppy since it's more atractive to her. She' s 3 yrs. Old and a Biewer Yorkie it's her first litter and my third since my 3 yr. Old Yorkie has had 2 litters and a total of 11 pups. 5 girls in total and 6 boys. Two different pregnancys. She' s a pro! But since this is Oksanas first litter I am very watchfull of her. I hope she gains her appetite. She loves boiled chicken breast! What else can you all recommend I feed her? Your imput will be helpfull. Thanks! Oh and daily I am giving her this supplement GNC High Caloric Multi Vitamin Supplement. Its a tube and its like a paste that tastes like beef.