This week’s article is a collaborative effort be-tween myself and wife, the latter at one time in her
achievement filled life being an animal nutritionist. She has rearranged and corrected my original text to the point of unrecognisability. In fact, she has advocated (no, decided) that she will in future edit all my articles – for precision’s sake. Dignity suggests that I do not allow her to so do; common sense dictates that I should.
It is obviously not an easy job for a mother dog to contend with a litter of hungry puppies. The general harassment alone takes its toll. More imortant, however, is the pressure placed on the mother to adequately feed the puppies while maintaining her own requirements. For one thing, her calorie needs during lactation could be as much as 300 per cent higher than normal.
Since the highest amount of calories can be garnered from fats, it may be wise to increase her fat intake. A teaspoon of vegetable oil may be added to every pound of her meat and rice diet. Of course, proteins are needed too. You should increase the meat content of her diet while offering milk periodically, especially right after suckling, when she exhibits extreme thirst.
Obviously, vitamins and minerals must not be deficient at this critical phase of increased milk production.
These requirements will increase as the energy intake increases to meet the demand of lactation. You may need to supplement the diet with canine vitamin and mineral tablets. Calcium is the most critical mineral at this stage, hence the strong recommendation of supplementing with milk (preferably fresh cow’s milk) which has a relatively high calcium content. Cottage cheese prepared from milk should constitute 20% of the overall diet, the other 80% per cent being your preferred form of solid food. The provision of calcium tablets is also an option but of course uni-element tablets do not provide the wholesome and balanced nutrition of milk. There is no need to buy calcium tablets that are retailed for humans; they are relatively expensive. Purchase instead the calcium tablets that are especially made for pets.
Although imported dog food (kibble, pellets, etc) allow for ease and convenience of feeding, I am a firm believer in feeding fresh meat and rice (at a 2:1 ratio) together with greens (eg bora, bhagee, pumpkin, etc). For many reasons, one has to be careful when using the imported dog food. Firstly, you must understand that an energy deficiency may result from dog foods that have low calorie densities, such as can be found in low-priced, poor quality, commercial products. Secondly, label “guarantees” and the data offered on the package do not tell the whole or even the genuine story relative to the true nutritive value of the food. On most occasions, the protein values, for example, do not relate to the digestibility or biological values of the protein. Often, also, you think you are buying protein derived from beef, say, while in fact you are getting soya bean (vegetable) protein – and some vegetable proteins do not have certain essential (or enough) amino acids. The adequacy of essential amino acids (the building blocks of protein) in non-animal protein sources to provide proper nutrition, coupled with possible occurrence of protein denaturation between manufacturing and consumption (bond storage, transportation, high ambient temperatures, etc), are important points to note when purchasing cheap, bagged, commercial feed.
On the other hand, fresh and well stored dog feed (from renowned and reliable manufacturers) which is especially targeting lactating bitches would be a good choice.
Lastly, once the bag of dog feed has been opened, then many fungi and bugs in the tropics seize the opportunity to invade. After all, five degrees away from the equator, and below sea level, with humidity levels of 100 per cent make for easy contamination of the feed. Perhaps, in passing, I should mention that we have discovered bags of feed being on the point of expiry when they are purchased by the consumer.
Enough for today. Now, that we have completed the topics relative to the care of the mother-to-be and the mother-that-is, let us look at the care of the newborn puppies – starting next week.
Please implement disease preventative measures (vaccinations, routine dewormings, monthly anti-heartworm medication, etc) and adopt-a-pet from the GSPCA’s Animal Clinic and Shelter at Robb Street and Orange Walk, if you have the wherewithal to care well for the animals. Do not stray your unwanted pets, take them to the GSPCA’s Clinic and Shelter instead. If you see anyone being cruel to an animal, or if you need any technical information, please get in touch with the Clinic and Shelter by calling 226-4237.