Gun Dog Forum

A friend's dog just had her pups. He's asking me about calcium supplements for the bithc. I never gave anything , but what is the current best advice?

Sharon wrote:A friend's dog just had her pups. He's asking me about calcium supplements for the bithc. I never gave anything , but what is the current best advice?

Free feed a quality food starting about a week after the pup are born and forget the supplements

The primary supplement that I recommend is TUNA Oil (not regular Fish or Salmon oil).
This is due to the high levels of DHA in Tuna Oil compared to other fish oils.

Also, Glucosamine Sulfate and Chondroitin Sulfate -- until the pup is 12 to 14 months old -- then switch to Glucosamine Sulfate + MSM.

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ezzy333 wrote:

Sharon wrote:A friend's dog just had her pups. He's asking me about calcium supplements for the bithc. I never gave anything , but what is the current best advice?

Free feed a quality food starting about a week after the pup are born and forget the supplements

Thanks.

DYNE.....along with plenty of fresh water and a good food, but we have had great success with DYNE, it is a great overall supplement for mom and pups....

JMO

Lvrgsp

Been breeding for 50 years and find it quite common for a bitch to get eclapsia with heavy nursing ,which having calcium on hand will help or given prevent.Revival Pet supply has a tube form that in very quick acting and the people on rthe phone VERY knowledgeable and helpful.Other than that we feed bitches very high fat and protein.When they are weaned they show next to no stress.Pups should be wormed starting at two weeks.Dew claws removed at 1 week.

I am a firm believer in supplementing a dogs food especially during times of high stress." Free feeding" always led to over weight, fat and lazy dogs for me. I use Animal Naturals Show Stopper and Superfuel mixed in their water and if it does nothing else, it keeps them hydrated....They love the taste.

Ive never seen hypocalcemia in a sporting breed. not saying it cant happen, i just think its pretty rare. i doubt the dog needs any supplementation. she should be able to mobilize enough calcium from her body to go into the milk. and it is a known fact that if you supplement, then that process of drawing calcium from her bones, tissues, etc, gets slowed down, which can lead to it not working sufficiently later (like when the pups get bigger and really start pulling on her and the mammary system demands even more calcium), which leads to hypocalcemia. what they told us in school was to immediately wean the pups if the bitch gets low on calcium; which leads me to believe that you may not be able to supplement sufficiently in the face of a calcium deficiency anyway. listen to ezzy on this one, imo.

Supplements aren't required but it isn't a bad idea to put the mom on a richer food or a puppy food.

MonsterDad wrote:Supplements aren't required but it isn't a bad idea to put the mom on a richer food or a puppy food.

So you believe that going to a richer food can have a difference?

dog dr wrote:Ive never seen hypocalcemia in a sporting breed. not saying it cant happen, i just think its pretty rare. i doubt the dog needs any supplementation. she should be able to mobilize enough calcium from her body to go into the milk. and it is a known fact that if you supplement, then that process of drawing calcium from her bones, tissues, etc, gets slowed down, which can lead to it not working sufficiently later (like when the pups get bigger and really start pulling on her and the mammary system demands even more calcium), which leads to hypocalcemia. what they told us in school was to immediately wean the pups if the bitch gets low on calcium; which leads me to believe that you may not be able to supplement sufficiently in the face of a calcium deficiency anyway. listen to ezzy on this one, imo.

THIS!

I just raised two beautiful pointer litters and would not use supplements. I started the dams on Nutrisource small to medium puppy food 32/21 (they were already on Nutrisource Performance 30/20) and free fed them. Weaned the pups on this http://www.eukanuba.com/dog-food/puppy- ... puppy-food and slowly added the dry puppy kibble to it and within a couple weeks they all ate the dry puppy kibble and all the pups were as healthy as any I've ever seen. Mothers are as trim as they were prior to being pregnant. Still feed the puppy kibble to my 12 week old keeper, but will be adding some lower protein and fat food soon.

Steve

Brazosvalleyvizslas wrote:

MonsterDad wrote:Supplements aren't required but it isn't a bad idea to put the mom on a richer food or a puppy food.

So you believe that going to a richer food can have a difference?

I do and its pretty common practice to put mom on a better diet in lieu of supplements. My comment was directed to a situation where the mom was on more of a maintenance diet before, like a 26% protein food.

Seems like with all the stress, a "puppy food" or richer kibble has all upside.

MonsterDad wrote:

Brazosvalleyvizslas wrote:

MonsterDad wrote:Supplements aren't required but it isn't a bad idea to put the mom on a richer food or a puppy food.

So you believe that going to a richer food can have a difference?

I do and its pretty common practice to put mom on a better diet in lieu of supplements. My comment was directed to a situation where the mom was on more of a maintenance diet before, like a 26% protein food.

Seems like with all the stress, a "puppy food" or richer kibble has all upside.

Ok, and I totally respect your opinion but what is a better diet? Why cant supplements help achieve a better diet?

Brazosvalleyvizslas wrote:

MonsterDad wrote:

Brazosvalleyvizslas wrote: So you believe that going to a richer food can have a difference?

I do and its pretty common practice to put mom on a better diet in lieu of supplements. My comment was directed to a situation where the mom was on more of a maintenance diet before, like a 26% protein food.

Seems like with all the stress, a "puppy food" or richer kibble has all upside.

Ok, and I totally respect your opinion but what is a better diet? Why cant supplements help achieve a better diet?

A quality food has everything in it that the dog needs so the only thing a supplement does is throw the balance of nutrients off which is an important part of a good diet. The main problem I had wit6h raising pups in the mother over producing and having problems getting her dried up. he pups don't need a whole lot of volume in a feed till they are near three weeks and when the pups start feeling hungry is the right time to introduce feed to them. And usually sometime around four weeks the mother will start getting away from the pups for longer periods. This is the start of the weaning process and will shortly cause udder problems if the amount of milk produced is not reduced. So in actuality the mother is called on to produce a high quantity for a little over a week and they can handle that quite easily unless there is some sort of a problem.

Thanks all. I sent the info to my friend and now it's his decision.