Labrador Retriever Forum
I did a research project over the holiday, want to bounce it off you all.
Many articles I found were indicating that high protein diets in the first six weeks of pregnancy actually cause a higher percentage of abortions and fewer pups per litter.
One article was by Carmen L. Battaglia, AKC judge, Masters Degree from FL state Univ.
The other article was by a couple of researchers at the Dept. of Food Science and Human Nutrition, Michigan State Univ.
Another study feeding 2 diets during pregnancy (first 6 weeks) showed almost 50% more live pups born. Article title "Influence of a Low Carbohydrate Diet on Performance of Pregnant and Lactating Dogs.
Many things I learned I found in references to articles I found on a site :
www.kimbertal.com/whelping.html
Has anyone out there done any research, tested any of this?
All input welcome.
I have one kennel I know whose dogs are fat and have small litters...that is a different thing.
The other kennel I know has fed VERY high (almost no carb) diet, and has small litter size. So taking all other factors into consideration, is food a BIG one? And what have you found as far as protein/carb amounts for before breeding, and during whelp?
Any good articles you recommend?
thanks
I have not heard that theory before. I feed the same food (25 protein/18 fat) for the whole pregnancy. I don't use puppy food anymore.
We do ultrasound on all bitches to confirm preg. and almost always end up with about the same on x-ray (give or take a couple). We have a repro vet that is really good with ultrsound reading. We don't have large litters - usually normal size- maybe 6 or 7. We have had some of only 2, but I think size of litters has more to do with the Mom's production of eggs. We did have (years ago) a couple of bitches that produced 10 and 12 pups, but somehow we have worked our way to smaller litters. The biggest we have had in the past 5 or 6 years is 9 pups.
Last litter was 8 healthy puppies,bitch was being fed Orijen for over a year.
Just speculation of course but 6 months ago, I put both my 2 now pregnant girls on Eagle Power Pack whichis high in proteing but has corn in it. I was after the high protein and the fact that I heard that it helps bitches to have larger litters. We had been having very small to no success in getting our girls pregnant up until our 6 month trial run with Eagle Power Pack Kibble. Now they are both very pregnant and one is about to whelp her pups any hour now !!
No scientific basis for this, just anecdotal. I won a bag of Royal Canin Lab 30 at a raffle. I put one bitch on it to see how she did. She came into season a few weeks later and we bred her. I didn't want to change foods while she was in whelp, so I bought another bag and kept her on it. Her three previous litters were small - 5, 2 and 3 pups. She had 10 on the RC!
I didn't really know if the food was an issue, but it seemed to work so I fed it to my other two girls last spring when we bred them. One had 12 pups and the other 7. I know 7 is not a big litter, but her previous litter had been only 3, so it was an improvement.
I am not fond of the food overall for several reasons and it is tres expensive! I will likely not use it for my next breedings, but I have to wonder if it was a factor in litter size. I normally feed Exceed C&R and have not had fertility problems, even though the litters were not as large.
Intresting...
The Royal Canin Lab 30 is 30/13 and pretty loaded with carbs, (Chicken meal, brown rice, corn gluten, oatmeal, barley, brewers rice, chicken fat...) I dislike seeing Corn Gluten meal in dog food.
But if it works I would try it, if I was having fertility issues here.
Interesting topic, thanks for sharing.
I've used a kibble that's 30/22 and consistently get litters of 9 - 11.
Just had a litter and after reading about high protein/high calcium, I worried the entire time my bitch was preg.
I didn't change anything, fed EVO red meat. She was on this for over 2 years and I didn't want to change what works.
She had a nice litter of 8 live pups, easiest whelp I ever had.
We haven't bred alot. Last litter, mom was on Canidae Chicken/Rice (old version) and we increased her intake around 5-6 weeks and started adding other yummies to the kibbles. We had a large litter of 10, natural whelping, didn't lose any pups, all ranging from 10-14 oz.
Taken from http://www.kimbertal.com/whelping.html (as OP mentioned)
"(Recent studies have shown that high protein diets in the first six weeks of pregnancy actually cause a higher percentage of abortions and fewer pups per litter.)"
This is an interesting subject and it would be great if the owner of the site would list these recent studies so we could see the info directly.
I tried to do a search but can't come up with anything. Perhaps not using the right phrase?
Anyone else have info on these studies?
