How much weight do you feel your bitch gains with each pregnancy? How much do you feel is too much? Saw a bitch and I am sure it was not puppies in there!

I had a bitch that had four puppies and gained over 20 lb. We thought for sure she was having a dozen and were totally surprised when we saw the x-ray. Within a couple of days of delivery she looked totally normal (except for the udder of course!)

It's hard to tell how much weight is fluid vs. puppy vs. uterus vs. placenta etc. I'm not a big fan of worrying about the actual numbers. Just manage the condition of the bitch the same way you always do - check ribs and make sure the feel right - not too obvious but not totally fat covered either.

I don't know about averages or what each of our bitches gained, but we've had a few c-sections over the years and those were weighed in and had gained about 17-20 lbs.

I've never weiged my girls during their pregnancy or afterwards...only when they go in for a pre checkup or for first progesterone draw.

I go more by the looks than weight. If I start to see my girls looking too thin after they whelp their litter or anytime during the nursing and weaning stage, I up their food intake and give them extra goodies like bacon greese, vanilla icecream that first couple weeks of nursing, left over puppy mush kibble. They are fed well at our house and monitored for putting on extra weight during the entire pregnancy. A fat (obese) bitch generally isn't an easy whelper so I've always guarded against obese bitches just to avoid a c-section. So far so good !!

My girls are not kenneled for long periods of time and they play hard with one another and have good, happy attitudes come whelping time.