My pregnant Shih Tzu is a picky eater. Can I give her multivitamins?

Yes, you should feed a pregnant and lactating mother a puppy food as this has more calories for the extra demand of nutrition that she will need while pregnant and nursing. Once her puppies are weaned she can go back on to her regular adult maintenance diet. I hope this helps. Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach. Best of luck.

Hi, thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! All pregnant dogs need during pregnancy is to eat a high quality commercial puppy food. No vitamin supplements are needed. I would need to know the brand of multivitamins she ate. It is best that you call an animal poison control in the UK just to be sure that isn't a toxic dose of vitamins. Most excess vitamins are just excreted out in the urine and are not toxic but it depends on what is in the type you have. The safest thing for Jinny is to call animal poison control with the name of the vitamins, her weight and the number of tablets. I wish you the best

No vitamins are needed, but you can feed her with a more energetic food (wet if she does not like dry), like puppy food, from now. Good luck with the little ones and let us know how she is getting on!!!!

It is not recommended to give puppies any multivitamins. That is because this can lead to giving him too many vitamins, thus have adverse affects on his growth. I would feed Akki a puppy formulated food, which will provide him will all the nutrients and vitamins he needs to grow.

Pregnant bitches should be fed a high quality, complete food and should be fed the puppy stage from 6-7weeks plus to ensure a higher calorie intake. They should not need extra supplementation and be sure not to over supply calcium as this can predispose to eclampsia during birth or nursing

A balance and complete nutrition would be enough to avoid any vitamin supplementation. I would recommend a good quality commercial diet for puppies in her case. You can feed her 3 times daily up to 6 months.

I definitely think you need to see a veterinarian. While some dogs can have a slight decrease in appetite at the beginning and end of pregnancy it would not be normal to have to force feed a dog. Depending on when she was bred a veterinarian may be able to check for pregnancy with ultrasound or an x-ray, but there is unfortunately not a blood test for pregnancy in dogs. Luna may need to have some other diagnostic tests performed to determine why she isn't eating.