With a planned breeding, the date of mating should be carefully recorded. If there are two matings, make a note of the exact dates and expect birth to occur between 63 and 65 days later.
Make sure that she does not have the opportunity to mate with any other dogs. Remember that oestrus will continue for several more days and she could theoretically become pregnant from another dog during this period.
After a planned mating it is a good idea to allow her to rest quietly for a few hours. It is important that she is in good physical condition before she is mated. Both the male and female dog should be examined by a veterinarian prior to mating.
After mating, food intake should remain the same during the first two-thirds of pregnancy approximately six weeks after mating. If a well-balanced super-premium diet is being fed there is no need to use additional vitamin or mineral supplements. Discuss nutritional supplements and vitamins with your veterinarian before giving them to your dog. Some large breed dogs may have adverse effects if they are given certain supplements. After the sixth week of pregnancy, food intake should be gradually increased and high energy, low fiber foods are recommended ie the premium diets available from the veterinary hospital.
As the foetuses increase in size, abdominal pressure increases and frequent small meals are advised. During the last three weeks of pregnancy, food intake can be increased by up to one and a half times the normal level by feeding smaller meals more frequently.
If you are unsure about any supplements or medication, please do not hesitate to contact your veterinarian. The best way to protect yourself and your pets against costly vet bills is to take out multi pet insurance. By combining all your pets on a single policy, you can save money and ensure you have the cover you need. You will need to know how to support your dog through pregnancy and whelping, including understanding the signs that veterinary assistance is required.
You should be familiar with all you need to do to keep the bitch and her litter healthy in the early days, and how to socialise the pups when they find their feet. The stud you choose should have a pedigree that is compatible with your bitch, as well as a clean bill of health. Before breeding, the stud should be checked for inherited diseases which apply to that breed. Of course, you can always choose to create a crossbreed litter. Some mixed breed dogs are immensely popular, mixing the best characteristics of two pedigrees.
The size and temperament of crossbreed dogs is hard to predict, and deliveries can also be higher risk, perhaps even requiring a caesarean section. A bitch is suitable for mating when she is over one year old and has had at least one normal season. Most bitches will come on heat twice a year once they are in season. The age at which bitches come into season for the first time can be as old as two — larger breeds tend to be later.
The best time to mate a bitch is around the th day of her season from 11 days after the first day of bleeding. However, this is hard to predict as some bitches will accept a dog earlier, while others will not accept the dog until later. A vet may be able to carry out hormonal testing on the bitch to check the best date for trying to mate.
To mate the dogs, they are brought into the same space and usually, nature takes its course if the female is in the right stage of her cycle. Bitches will be in whelp for around 63 days. From 21 days after mating, a vet can check if your bitch is pregnant by testing for the hormone relaxing and manual checks to see if the uterus is thickening.
This may be covered by your multi pet insurance. From 28 days, puppy heartbeats may be heard with a stethoscope and the pups should show up on an ultrasound scan. This should also show how many pups will be in the litter.
During pregnancy, your dog should start out with the same healthy diet and exercise regime she is used to. When she is ready to give birth, she may seem restless and scratch at the ground or her bed. This is when you make up a whelping box. This should be of a size to allow the bitch to come and go easily, but confine the puppies and keep out draughts. It should be lined with bedding that is soft and durable, such as old blankets or sheets.
The dam-to-be may pant and urinate frequently as whelping approaches. This is when females start to attract males, although they will reject their advances until stage two.
The signs of proestrus are:. Estrus lasts anywhere from 3-to-4 days to 7-to days. This is when the bitch is receptive to the male. Many breeders have a veterinarian take vaginal smears and blood tests during proestrus and estrus to make sure they breed their dogs at the optimal time. Diestrus is the final stage of the cycle. It typically occurs around day The heat is complete when all signs of swelling and discharge are gone.
The time frame between one heat cycle and the next is called anestrus and usually lasts around six months. Understanding the heat cycle plays an important role in determining the length of pregnancy. Humans have developed instantaneous pregnancy tests that make it easy to determine whether or not we are pregnant. It is not as simple for our dogs. You will most likely need to visit your veterinarian to find out if your dog is pregnant. If possible, be sure to tell your vet exactly when your dog was bred, or your best estimate of the time frame, as all of the pregnancy testing methods for dogs are time sensitive.
There are four methods veterinarians can use to determine if a dog is pregnant :. Veterinarians can test for the hormone relaxin to determine if a bitch is pregnant. Relaxin is released from placental tissue only during pregnancy, which makes it a fairly accurate diagnostic test.
However, the bitch must be at least 30 days into her gestation for the test to be accurate. Tests taken before that can have a false negative. Palpation is the cheapest and most convenient way to diagnose pregnancy. As each fetus develops, the membranes around them grow to form fluid-filled sacs. These sacs can be felt between days 21 and 35 of gestation approximately three-to-four weeks , and grow to about the size of a table tennis ball in a pound dog.
After one month, the sacs lose their distinctive shape, and the uterus develops a floppy feel that can be mistaken for fat or a pyometra. An x-ray is a great way for breeders to determine how many puppies to expect from their bitch.
Waiting until after day 55 allows veterinarians to give an accurate count of the number of expected puppies and and to determine the best timing for an elective cesarean. An ultrasound is the best way to find out if a dog is pregnant early on in gestation. Veterinarians recommend ultrasounds between days 25 and 35 of gestation. Ultrasounds not only detect pregnancy, they also determine whether the fetus is alive by registering fetal heartbeats. Ultrasounds can also be used to rule out other causes of uterine distension, like a pyometra, and can help calculate the gestational age of the fetus.
The normal gestation period in dogs is approximately 63 days from conception, although this can vary by several days. While this might seem like a straightforward answer, conception is often hard to determine.
Sperm can live for several days inside the female, and eggs can remain fertile for up to 48 hours, which means the act of mating itself is not an exact measurement of gestation. This makes it hard to predict the length of pregnancy without the assistance of a veterinarian.
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