Hi, maybe you can help me if I'm posting this in the wrong place.

I am a standard poodle breeder and I'm having a lot of problems with milk production. These are unrelated females of different ages all with the same problem of low milk supply, so I figure this has got to be diet. I have tried offering chicken broth, gatorade etc to encourage drinking. I've tried fenugreek and other herb supplements to no avail.

I was considering making my own dog food, because we all know dog food is crap.

I did attempt to go raw a few months ago and it was an epic fail. I have four house dogs, they couldn't kick the diarrhea, I couldn't keep track of who had it. It was just kind of a general disaster.

I found this info on cooking your own dog food. http://homemadedogfood.com/?gclid=CO6Mqfm9w7gCFWxyQgod5UoA2A

Anyone have any thoughts?

What are you feeding now?

No, not all commercial food is crap.

And an unbalanced home-cooked diet would actually be worse than the ones that actually are crap.


BTW, the cooked recipes you're looking at exist to sell the two products they contain that you must buy to make the food. I quote: " this dog food recipe is deficient without the two supplements."

Dinovite isn't a terrible product, but it should be darned cheap, based (as it is) on flaxseed. And it's not cheap at all.

I'd go in a completely different direction if I were going to home-cook dog food (which I have done many times in the past, although I'm almost entirely a raw feeder).



Number one for me is, what are you feeding now, and how often are the females bred?

Right now I am feeding Nature's Domain Grain free turkey and sweet potato, all life stages. I could take a picture of the nutritional info but I'm not sure how to post it here. I had a dog who got an itchy red tummy and when I switched to grain free it took away the allergy.

I skip a heat between litters. But like with this female I just bred, she has 6 week old puppies now, she is two years old and this was her first litter. She just barely had any milk. Maybe I am over worrying, but she had ten puppies. Her first two nipples up by her front legs were basically totally dry. She she had 6 nipples and 10 puppies. The puppies were obviously getting milk, and every time I squeezed her breast NOTHING would come out.

I even separated her for 3 hours and when I went to squeeze her breasts, barely anything came out, I would expect after three hours she would be full of milk.

When the puppies were about 2 weeks old I started giving one bottle a day using Ed's homemade formula. As they got older I went to two bottles a day. And they seem to be thriving on that. So she's not totally dry, she just doesn't seem to make enough and I had this problem with the others last time.

So maybe I am over thinking this. It's just in the past I've seen females who were cows, overflowing with milk.

I want to go raw, honestly the thought is just so overwhelming..........Maybe I just need to quit being a baby, LOL

Right now I am feeding Nature's Domain Grain free turkey and sweet potato, all life stages. I could take a picture of the nutritional info but I'm not sure how to post it here. I had a dog who got an itchy red tummy and when I switched to grain free it took away the allergy.

I skip a heat between litters. But like with this female I just bred, she has 6 week old puppies now, she is two years old and this was her first litter. She just barely had any milk. Maybe I am over worrying, but she had ten puppies. Her first two nipples up by her front legs were basically totally dry. She she had 6 nipples and 10 puppies. The puppies were obviously getting milk, and every time I squeezed her breast NOTHING would come out.

I even separated her for 3 hours and when I went to squeeze her breasts, barely anything came out, I would expect after three hours she would be full of milk.

When the puppies were about 2 weeks old I started giving one bottle a day using Ed's homemade formula. As they got older I went to two bottles a day. And they seem to be thriving on that. So she's not totally dry, she just doesn't seem to make enough and I had this problem with the others last time.

So maybe I am over thinking this. It's just in the past I've seen females who were cows, overflowing with milk.

I want to go raw, honestly the thought is just so overwhelming..........Maybe I just need to quit being a baby, LOL

This one?

http://www.naturesdomainpetfood.com/about-natures-domain/natures-domain-turkey-meal-and-sweet-potato-formula-for-dogs

Just looked up the Dinovite. $200 for the Multi-dog canister. Sheesh.

what I meant by the dog food is crap thing is the way they bake it. It's all dead. No living enzymes, no "live" components.

"I want to go raw, honestly the thought is just so overwhelming.."

Have you considered the excellent bridge to all-raw that you can do with THK and something like chicken backs to add in?

http://leerburg.com/honestkitchen.htm

Not only is such a diet (THK plus add-ins) a great bridge, but it's also a fine diet to give indefinitely. Variety (IMO, crucial to the diet) can be provided both by different THKs and by the add-ins.

Dehydrated raw is the one form of commercial food that is safe to give with kibble and safe to give with raw. (Kibble + raw is a problem.)

So THK can be introduced gradually to a dog by making a thin "gravy" from it to pour over the kibble you are giving and acclimate her to the taste rather than suddenly serving a brand-new texture and flavor all at once.

Yes Connie! That's the one. What do you think about that for a nursing mom?

I was also giving Oxy Mama to them when nursing but it didn't seem to make a difference. http://www.revivalanimal.com/Breeders-Edge-Oxy-Momma.html

I gave her double what they recommended of the Oxy Mama and unlimited dry food that I would put some yogurt in as well.

I have a friend who is a human herbalist and she said that the amount of herbs in the Oxy Mama was WAY under the amount that she would actually need.

 Quote: Vanessa vom Lehn

what I meant by the dog food is crap thing is the way they bake it. It's all dead. No living enzymes, no "live" components.

Not THK (and other dehydrated raw foods).



PS

$200 for something that has flaxseed as the top ingredient. "Sheesh" is my reaction too.

I mean, Yes that's the Nature's Domain food website.

I will check out THK stuff!