how much food is too much for a pregnant *****?

Question

our staffy girl is 62 days pregnant with her third and final litter. She is absolutely HUGE!!!! but we cant seem to feed her enough. She just wants to eat and eat and eat (wich I kinda get cause I did too) but how much is TOO much??Should we watch her eating or just let her go? She is of course eating healthy and strange things like apple and frozen mixed veg????? She is on the puppy mix of HILLS Science diet as well as home cooked mince garlic veg and pasta. Just this morning she stole the toast off my small sons high chair (wich she would never usually dare do) so are we being nasty by not giving her a free range on what ever she would like to eat or do we just stick to the recommended amount for a pregnant and whelping *****? Oh by the way our dog has been wormed, she is a pedigree under vetrinarian care and we have researched heavily before breeding but this is one we havent come across before. Any opinions will be read and any helpful ones will be greatly appreciated

my dog IS under veterinarian care but I havent rushed here there in the last 3 days because she has decided she cant stop eating so to the helpful person who comented that she musnt really be under vet care!!!!! If I rang my vet and said that my dog wanted to eat all day he would think I was cracked for stressing over it. This is not really a medical question but rather a bit of chit chat from an excited expectant grandmother. So I dont think its worhty of a vet visit to ask if I can up her food!!! Calm down and take this question as it was meant to be given. A little bit of banter while we wait for our babies to be born.

ok some of you guys are a little crazy! Our baby girl is an English Staffordshire Terrrier not a pit bull!!!!!! And I live in Australia where it is illegal to breed pits anyway not that I would if I could. Hills science must be different here because it is highly recommended by our vets and most other vets in Australia. This web site is multi cultral and spans many continents so lets try and look beyond our noses before we attack and have a go at people who are just asking a very simple and non aggressive question. Over here a Staffy is NOT a pit bull and Im sure its not in many other countrys . Calm Down and you may learn something!

Answer 1

First of all, Science Diet is CRAP! Your veterinarian should know this. It's full of fillers (corn) and not enough essential high quality proteins, nutrients, and fats. Having a pedigree dog would mean that you're knowledgeable enough to read the back of food labels for the list of ingredients, % of protein, etc.

My advice to you in regards to your dog's overall health is STOP USING SCIENCE DIET! The highest quality brands I've researched are 1) EVO made by Natura 2) Innova by Natura 3) Solid Gold

These are all natural dog foods with no preservatives, fillers, or by-products.

On another note, a dog that is pregnant or lactating should be free fed. They need the extra calories to sustain a healthy body weight & maintain enough milk to supply to their puppies. This doesn't mean feed her table scraps. That could cause major digestive problems.

Hope this helps. Hope the delivery goes well.

Answer 2

Dogs tend to overeat. You don't normally put down a bowl and let them eat until they are full, but some of them don't every get full. So give her a good portion of quality food but not a lot of bulky food. With all those puppies and it sounds like she is having several ; extra food will just make her miserable and probably cause some gas....which is not fun if you are pregnant.

Any food the babies don't take will just cause her to gain weight and mess up her figure. And apples are good for them, just not any of the seeds, they can be toxic. So core her apples please. My dogs will eat anything except green peas. They leave them on the plate.

Answer 3

You are doing right by feeding her puppy food. Ignore the people who will scream how bad Hills is - it isn't! lol Pregnant b itches commonly eat up to FIVE times the normal amount during the latter stages of pregnancy, and continue to need large amounts whilst they nurse. Right now, I would recommend you let her eat as much of the Hills as she wants, but cut right down on the things you are adding to it, as it is such a carefully balanced diet you risk knocking off the optimum balance of nurtients that it contains.
Pretty much, keep doing what you are doing. You may find, after birthing, she may lose her appetite, so it is vital she gets strong NOW.
Good luck =)

Answer 4

Hills Science Diet is pure crap. Look at the ingredients and rating for this "food".
http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/dog_food_reviews/

Also you have to lack morals and compassion to be breeding pit bulls. They are the most abused dogs in the country and the first to be put down in shelters. Some shelters put them down immediately if there is even a resemblance of pit in them. How many of your puppies will wind up there is anybody's guess but they will wind up there or worse. And for what? A backyard breeder trying to make money! Sickening!

Answer 5

All pregnant mammal eat large quantities during pregnancy.
She is only eating as much as her body needs.
Stop worrying.

Answer 6

So if you have her under consistent vet care why are you having to ask Answers? Your vet should be guiding you with her nutrition needs and amounts to feed per day. If you let her eat anything all day, man it would be devistating if she were to bloat in her condition. Vets go to 8 years of school for a reason.