My nursing dog is gassy, thirsty, and needy. Is her food the problem?

Yes, there are different brands of food you can try for Thumper. I recommend Royal Canin, Purina ProPlan, Hill's Science Diet, or Iams. Purina One is also a good brand of supermarket food. At his age, he should be fed three times a day so you are doing that correctly! As for the amount, the bag will list how much food he should get daily, so use that as a guideline for feeding him and divide it into three equal portions. Make sure as well he is up to date on his deworming treatments because that can make him gassy as well. Should you decide to switch foods, do it slowly so avoid GI upset. Mix together the new food and the old, and over the course of two weeks, gradually increase the amount of new food and decrease the amount of old food until he is eating the new food only. Finally, he should stay on a puppy food until he is 12 months old. I hope this helps!

At almost six weeks old, the puppies should start weaning and you can leave them out a puppy mush. I would soak a high quality puppy formulated dry food in warm water until soft. Then mix that with puppy formula such as KMR to make a mush the consistency of oatmeal. Over the next two weeks, gradually increase the amount of dry puppy food and decrease the amount of water and KMR you use until they are eating the dry puppy food only. As for the mother, I would be concerned that she could be vomiting due to a postpartum complication such as eclampsia or mastitis. It would be best for her to see a vet immediately to be safe.

I'm wondering if your friend meant puppy food, not baby food. Yes you can give puppy food to nursing mothers to get extra calories, calcium, and protein to support nursing, but food switches should be done slowly to avoid GI upset. Because Peper has had diarrhea for a week, I would take her and her puppies into a vet today to get checked out.

It is to be expected that, with the extra demands of nursing pups, Aurora will need more calories and, therefore, will need to poop more often. It's one of the joys of having a litter that you get to leave your comfy bed during the night to take the mom out! Do not decrease her food intake, as she needs the extra nutrients. Just grin and bear it, remembering that this will pass soon enough!

Excessive water consumption, weight loss despite still eating can signal diabetes. If she is nursing puppies, that is the most likely cause for her weight loss. The blood is concerning, it could be anything from parasites, to a viral or bacterial infection, just to name a couple of possibilities. I recommend getting her in to see your vet right away for an exam and labwork. Also, while she is nursing puppies, she should have access to lots of fresh water and as much high calorie puppy food as she wants at all times.

Lylah would do well on a good-quality puppy food while she is nursing. Having it available for the next couple of months will also make sure that it is available when the puppies start to eat solid foods. I feed my dogs ProPlan: https://www.chewy.com/purina-pro-plan-focus-puppy-chicken/dp/52414

Hello, congratulations on your new puppies. Pregnant bitches and those who have just birthed puppies will have a substantially higher calorie demand. Most of the time, we even recommend switching mothers to puppy food (richer in calories) to keep up with there caloric demand. Alternatively, at four weeks you may wean the puppies off from nursing an onto wet/canned puppy food so that mom stops producing milk and her caloric demand returns to normal. You may feed her up to 4-6 times per day while she continues to nurse. Hope this helps and best of luck.