Do dogs go off their food when pregnant??

[makemeslim]

i put my dogs to stud a week after each other, only 2 and 3 weeks ago, they do seem a little less tolerant on each other and seem to have gone of their food, Does anyone have any experience?? Or have they simply gone of their food and their grumpy because they're hungry?? i feed them twice a day and remove it after 15 / 20 minutes

[multitask]

I would have thought if you were experienced enough to breed then you'd know this question! Two dogs bred at same time... shakes head :(

[makemeslim]

Anyone with any useful advice please ?

[Lonecatwithkitten]

The hormonal changes post season are exactly the same whether a bitch falls pregnant or not. There is no sure fire way to know they are pregnant at this stage the earliest you can know is at 24-28 days by having a scan. I hope you have got plenty of money saved.

[poachedeggs]

[Gingersstuff]

Our bitch did go off her food a little bit initially but then grew a Hungry Monster as the pregnancy progressed. As LoneCat says though there's no way initially to tell the difference. You MUST seek advice on how to feed her properly.
I have to say I think you're utterly mad to be even contemplating potentially two litters at once, and especially not having done a fair bit of research beforehand? We had ten pups and they all survived only because we were absolutely hands-on - it really was a 24-hour a day job to start with to make sure they were all feeding and didn't get trapped under the mother, AND our pups had no health issues at all - I honestly don't know how you're going to cope with 2 litters!! I hope you've got a lot of extra hands to help. Even a very experienced breeder would balk at this. What kind of dogs are they?

[Gingersstuff]

Thinking a bit more about it...I really do hope you've got a pot of money saved for this. The vet bills are steep enough for one litter and assuming no health problems. One lady I know had one pup in the vet's surgery for 3 days due to giardia and it cost her hundreds of pounds

[ditavonteesed]

awww cute puppies, and what a great way to make loads of money with very little effort

[ChickensHaveNoEyebrows]

Those in the know, would you please start a thread explaining the basic and not so basic costs of raising a litter? I'd be really interested, and it might help other people make responsible decisions

[Slavetothechild]

Our last litter of puppies cost approximatly £2000 to raise until 9 weeks ! That was not including the welping box heat lamp and pad ect as we had them already and health tests we have already done ! It did include premating tests vet visits to check mum and pups after delivery, antibiotic for mastitis (which is common ) and one puppy needing a bit of extra help ( shes fine now and stayed with me :) ) the rest was stud fees hotel for 3 days as mating was 250 miles away bedding food toys and loads of bits i cant remember. We also spent 24/7 with the pups for the first month. Very expensive and tiring. This is fairly avage cost and time wise and we have been breeding and showing dogs for 20 years . Hope this put people off or at least makes them realise its not easy to do it properly

[ChickensHaveNoEyebrows]

Wow, Slave. That is a serious investment. Thanks for replying :)

[Lonecatwithkitten]

I would suggest having a pot of £1500 for a small bitch and up to £3000 for a large breed.
I always advise people that they should always enter breeding knowing they could loose all that money, the bitch and the pups it doesn't happen often, but it does happen.

[Booyhoo]

hey! my message didn't break talk guidelines. i asked a question. no personal attack was made.

MNHQ are getting ridiculous with this deletion policy. the left hand doesn't know what the right hand's doing. you need to be having a wee group meeting up there and all taking down the same notes.

[Booyhoo]

i'll repost my message anyway.

so OP you intentionally got your dogs pregnant without even finding out how it would affect them?

why?

and how come you have time to report posts but not reply to any?

[TheCunnyFunt]

Wow that's a lot Slave! What dogs do you breed if you don't mind me asking?

[TheCunnyFunt]

Booy if that was what you typed before, word for word then that's ridiculous! It's not a personal attack at all!

[Booyhoo]

no i left out the 'attack' part the second time.

[multitask]

I saw your post Booyhoo before it was deleted, just as you say it was not a personal attack just a question we are all wondering!!

[Gingersstuff]

Lonecat, I would say spot on. We've a large breed, cost us just over the £3000 to raise our litter I reckon.
I hope the op has plenty of cash and octopus hands....

[multitask]

Oh and stock up on newspappers. a friend who breeds the very occassional letter stocks up nearly a year in advance and that is for ONE litter not to mention the mountain of vet bed she uses and those disposable sheets that pampers sells! She slept with the litter for 5 weeks, had 8 weeks off work, 24/7 supervision even during her mealtimes so mum didn't squash any pups. The vast amount of food the mum and puppies ate, including puppy food (mum is feed on this for few weeks before litter is born) eggs, goats milk, minced steak etc, wormer was bloody expensive too!

Digging a big hole in the garden and shovelling your money into would be easier thn having a litter!

[Slavetothechild]

Cunny i have setters :) quite a large breed adults weigh between 30-40 kg

[Slavetothechild]

Haha multitask so true