Barfing in Pregnancy through to Whelping and Weaning

Many people ask me about how to "barf" (Bones and Raw Food) a pregnant bitch.

Rather than tell you what you should do, I much prefer to tell you what I'm doing.

Let me introduce Shelly - Australian Champion Anji's Sea Shell de Alcedo (Imported US). Shelly has had one litter before, three years ago. From this litter of 9 puppies, 4 have gone on to achieve their Australian Championships.

We are very much of the belief that the best commercial dog food available is still vastly inferior to a well put together natural diet for your dog. After all, the best educated vets these days are fully in favour of the natural diet, because of the huge improvement in overall health of dogs resulting from this diet.

Here's the diary of Shelly's pregnancy:

June

In preparation for pregnancy, it's important that Shelly is in top health. In mid- June 2001, Shelly was bred to Bofors (Int Ch Biley's Bofors Big Bang - from Sweden). Additionally it is critical to note that the stud dog has been fed the same diet. It is very important that the stud dog has the best available diet. Of course this means, he should NEVER be fed commercial dog foods.

Shelly's diet pre-pregnancy consisted of the following :

raw chicken carcasses
raw chicken heads
raw beef liver (a couple of tablespoons a week)
2-3 raw eggs a week (home raised chickens)
raw meaty lamb bones
raw whole fish (3 times a week)
pulped veggies twice a week
pig's feet - once every couple of weeks

The key ingredient here is the raw whole fish. Shelly loves these and they are extremely nutritious for dogs. We always buy the cheapest fish at the market - usually mullet, silver bream, and the like. I prefer to feed them fresh where possible.

Additionally, it is important that Shelly receives "balance" in the diet over a 2-3 week period - not daily.

July

At the end of July, it is evident that Shelly is pregnant. Very pregnant. At this stage she looks like she has 8-9 puppies in there. Her nipples are swollen, and some of the hair on her underbelly has thinned a little. Her uptuck has thickened.

On average she is eating about two chicken carcasses a day. Temperament wise she is just great. She's a little quieter, and not chasing the ball so much, and she carries around one of my son's stuffed toys for most of the day. In fact, she's not happy at all unless she's got something in her mouth. So before I go out, I always make sure that Shelly has something for her to look after while I'm away. She is going to be such a great mother.

We're continuing to feed fish 3 times a week.

August

Shelly is looking increasingly bigger. She's checked out the whelping area I've set up especially for her, and seems pleased with it, although I get the feeling she'd like me to do a bit more work on it!

Her appetite is larger, but I'm ensuring that she doesn't eat EVERYTHING that she wants! I still limit what she eats, as I don't want her to be a tub of lard at the end of this.

Watch out for puppy pictures soon!

Puppies!

The whelping progressed well. Unfortunately there were a couple of unviable puppies. After 6 hours and several puppies, a quick visit to the vet for a checkup and an oxytocin shot led to the arrival of another 6 puppies for one of the largest litters of pwds born ever. Shelly has come "back into shape" very quickly, and is eating a selection of mostly chicken necks, whole fish, and fresh eggs. Within 5 days of the birth, she was wanting to play "fetch" again.

She is again proving an excellent mother to this rather large litter. No supplementing to the puppies is occurring. Shelly is naturally rotating all puppies and they are putting on weight well.

September 1,2001

September 9,2001

The pups' first meal consisted of crushed up chicken carcass and goats' milk. They seemed to be very impressed by it! It should be noted at this point that at no point will these pups receive any grain based foods during weaning and beyond. There is absolutely no need for any rice based, or wheat based products at this time!

One of the other key factors in the raising of this litter is that I am growing them slowly. This means they are not constantly bombarded with a stimulating environment. They are left to grow at their own pace with some measured small amounts of stimulating as they grow. Additionally, I have used no disinfectants or bleach in the whelping areas, as the pups are introduced to life's natural diversity of bacteria etc in a way that helps to build their immunity. That being said, the pups are in tip top health.

October 11,2001

And there proceeds an exit of many of the pups to distant reaches. We are especially pleased to see "Lily" and "Bingo" go to one of our most loyal families who has waited patiently for three years for their pups.

"Jed", "Fancy", and "Compass" will stay here with us.

In terms of Shelly, she is still continuing to offer the pups a feed a couple of times a day. Her undercarriage is slowly returning to normal, and she is in fantastic shape.

The vet came out last week and vet checked the pups and vaccinated. He was very happy with the health of the pups and the progress, although he did wonder how we stay sane with so many!

The best thing for us is the amount of learning we've picked up during the last 2 months. The experience gained has been priceless and we pass the relevant information through to those that we mentor, so that they too can also learn.