Dog Pregnancy: your bitch and her pregnancy Supplements

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Tuesday, May 1st, 2007 Subscribe To Our Feed

It is important that pregnant bitches get adequate supplementation of vitamins and minerals just as much as they need nutritious food to keep their bodies in good health. Regardless of how healthily you feed your dog, when she becomes pregnant you must make the extra effort to supplement her diet with the best quality powder or tablets that you can find.

Common questions:

* If I purchase supplements in tablet form, and I cannot get my dog to ingest them, is it okay if I crush them up and mix it with her food?

Yes, it is quite acceptable to crush your dogs tablets if needed. However, you must be careful not to minimize the effects of the particular supplement in question. In other words, some vitamin and mineral supplements are time released and these time released capabilities only last if the tablet is intact. So if you crush up a time-release supplement and feed it to your dog mixed with her food, you may be diminishing the effects by as much as 80%.

Your best bet is to go out and purchase a powder form so that you can rest assured that your dog is getting the appropriate dosage and experiencing the intended nutritional effect in her system. Remember, your dog’s health is at stake, especially if she is pregnant.

* Is it possible for my pregnant dog to overdose on a harmless vitamin or mineral supplement?

First of all, you need to discard the notion that store-bought supplements can be harmless. Regardless of how healthy and normal a supplement may be (like a vitamin for example), there is always a chance of an overdose which may lead to serious illness.

And secondly, to answer your question directly ñ yes ñ your dog can overdose if you start the supplementation in higher amounts than her body can handle. Anything that is added to your dog’s diet should be done so in moderation.

Be conservative in dosages in the beginning because if it is overdone, supplementation can be disastrous. To be on the safe side, always give your dog the amount that you would a small 5 or 6 pound dog (like a Chihuahua). Then slowly move up and increase the dosages weekly until you have hit the recommended amounts at the label advises to give your dog at whatever particular size and situation (pregnancy) she is in.