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1. Although it is imperative that you supplement your dog’s diet once you discover a pregnancy, it is equally important to maintain supplementation even after whelping and continue to do so. There is a falsehood that goes around which recommends that dog owners should never add vitamins or minerals to their dogs diets unless they become sick or pregnant. This could not be further from the truth. Always supplement your dog with the nutrients needed for optimum health.

2. In addition to the above recommendation of starting your female dog on supplements, one of the most important reasons why you want to add vitamins and minerals to your dog’s diet is to be sure that she is getting in the nutrition she needs should a pregnancy occur.

Why should you prepare nutritionally before your dog is even pregnant? Most of the time female dogs will not even show signs of being pregnant until a least five weeks. By supplementing vitamins and minerals and other nutrients to her diet as a standard practice, you are assuring that her body is getting everything it needs during that time that you did not know she was pregnant. Those 4-5 weeks are vital to supplying good nutrition to the litter.

3. Your pregnant dog may go through periods of time when she does not want to eat. She will enter into a hunger strike that can last for days and days at a time. The good news is that this is a normal characteristic of a female who is experiencing major hormonal changes. Unfortunately, even missing one or two meals can be detrimental to the dogs health. This is where supplementation can really make a difference.

Although it is not recommended to replace food with vitamin pills and powders, it is definitely a benefit to be able to add whatever vitamins and minerals she is missing from her hunger fasts. For those times when she’s not eating it is totally acceptable to replace for normal food with something a little more enticing, such as a dog treat, and mix it with the appropriate supplementation powders.

4. Consider feeding your dog raspberry leaves. While it may seem like a new natural health supplement idea, this is actually an old health practice that has gone on for ages. Many old-timers who were successful dog breeders would chop up raspberry leaves so that they’re pregnant dogs would eat them with their food.

What do raspberry leaves do? It is said that raspberry leaves will help your pregnant dog to keep up with the proper amount of contractions needed for a proper delivery. Whether or not this will truly help your dog, you can do no harm by adding this plant to your dog’s diet. You can find raspberry leaves in dried form in almost any health food store.

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