How to Care for a Pregnant German Shepherd dog?

Q: How do I care for a pregnant German Shepherd dog?
What can I do to make sure she has the best delivery possible? Should I feed her a certain diet? or include certain things?

I am currently feeding her pedigree puppy food. Is that ok or should I buy something else? We also built a huge pen for her so she can have her puppies there. She is already used to it, we leave her in there for a few hours a day, and I do walk her daily. I bought a pool and have some hay ready to fill it with when she delivers, is that ok?

Photo Credit: West Midlands Police/Flickr CC

Answers and Views:

Answer by Goldengal
Well, you are a very special person to care and take her in.

Get her on some really good puppy food. Yes, puppy food. It has all the right things for her and the pups to grow and be healthy. Feed her 2 times a day and make sure its enough. Lots of good clean water. Grooming now is important too. Try to get her coat in good shape now because after the pups she will look kind of ragged. Al new moms do.

She can go for walks and do all the things you would normally do with a dog. She may get a bit tired so just don't overdo it.
Read all you can about whelping and how to care for newborn pups too. Ask your vet a lot of questions.
Good luck!!

Answer by me
You need to wean her onto puppy food from now until a few weeks after the birth its high in nutrients & proteins, walk her little and often, she won't have much room for food with the growing pups inside & she will be hungry again soon so feed her three reasonable size meals per day, she may also wee in the house if she can't get out for the toilet because of the pressure of the babies.

A fantastic book you just have to get is called Book of the Bitch: A Complete Guide to Understanding and Caring for Bitches by J.M.Eavans & Kay White -  it has every bit of info you'll need

Your gonna have to be prepared, when she is in labor don't panic or you will stress her out, there's so much info it's too much for me to write but please invest in the book a lot of people call it the breeder's bible

Answer by PJAC
Great question and thank you for taking on such a huge responsibility. She should be on a high protein diet at this point such as puppy food. Change her diet slowly over the next 2 weeks so she doesn't get an upset stomach! two great brands are Wellness and California Natural. Start by giving her a small amount of new food into her regular food. one part new food to 3 parts of the old food. Decrease the amount of old food slowly over the next two weeks until she is 100% onto her new food. Sometimes adding boiled white rice into the mix until she is used to it helps in aiding the process.

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Answer by chaquila
A pregnant German Shepherd should be on good puppy food. I give all my females that are PG puppy food when they breed. Lots of fresh water, and plenty of exercise. Other than that it's just setting back why nature does its thing. She will need a good size whelping box for the big event. Start getting used to where you want her to welp the pups. Not good to wait till the last minute for this. You do not want her upset during delivery.

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