When we have a pregnant female, we must take special care of her diet.

Pregnant and lactating females should eat puppy food until weaning occurs and the dog recovers its normal metabolic condition.

Females during pregnancy that were fed poor quality products are more likely to give birth to sick and weak puppies. Those that had an excess of vitamin A, have been shown to have puppies prone to suffer from malformations, CNS disorders, and supraventricular tissue calcinosis.

A rich in fats diet has been shown to cause an increase in liver glycogen in the puppy.

Excess protein in the diet of the mother is related to the "swimmer cub syndrome" that is seen mainly in breeds such as the Basset Hound, along with delayed myelination, causing nervous system disorders because the electrical impulses are not conducted with sufficient speed.

Poorly stored feed, at an elevated temperature, causes the mother to suffer from K hypovitaminosis which leads to a hemorrhagic syndrome, resulting in different problems, some that can even be fatal. 

In short, pregnant females need very little food during the first two thirds of the gestation period (5-6 weeks). This is because fetuses do not grow much at this stage as most of the growth takes place during the last three weeks.

In the last 3 weeks of gestation, the animal's energy intake should increase by 15% each week. At the time of delivery, the dog should be getting about a 50% additional food intake, as we have mentioned above, always feeding her properly and with a proper diet according to their needs, thus avoiding potential problems and shortcomings of both, mother and puppies.

Luposan Spain Conrado Grandville (notes) on Thursday, February 21, 2013 at 16:50