Had my first cleft recently. The food I feed does say it contains folic acid, but it does not say how much, and it is near the bottom of the ingredient list. For those of you who supplement with folic acid to try to prevent clefts, how much do you give? And can they get too much if there is some in the food? And when do you start, or do you do it everyday, even when not being bred?

Give your bitch a pre-natal human vitamin once daily a month or so before you anticipate her cycling. If you miss it, then just start the day they come into season. Continue for the entire pregnancy and you should not have any cleft issues. This info was given to me by a vet who found research done in the Netherlands with Boston Terriers that are highly predisposed to having them. By using the supplement the incident of clefts was reduced to less than 1%.

That is good info! I will look into it. Thank you.

The B50 I give my girls daily (C given separately), contains 400 mg or iu (I forget) of Folic Acid. Knock on wood, never had a cleft.

Vitamin B Complex 50 mg, not 100. There is no Vit C in this B complex that I give daily.

I use the 400mcg tablets you can buy at most groceries or pharmacies (like WalMart). All of mine get one daily - males and females.

Folic acid (folate) is important in cell repair and regeneration. I can only address its tested value in humans. According to the CDC, adding the vitamin folate to flour, a practice begun in 1996 to prevent birth defects, also appears to have a striking effect against cardiovascular disease, preventing an estimated 48,000 deaths a year from strokes and heart attacks. It also has some benefits in forming strong cell walls for sperm, etc. It is cheap, easy and probably more beneficial than many of the things we give our dogs. All of mine get one a day