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Canine Pregnancy
The average gestation length for a canine pregnancy can range from about 57-68 days, but I generally recommend planning for the arrival of some pups about 2 calendar months after the mating takes place. The accepted average gestation in veterinary circles is 64 days after a fertile mating.
One of my bitches has had two litters of pups and I learnt more from this experience than any textbook could ever teach me. I watched Amber balloon in the last 2 weeks of her pregnancy (she had 7 pups the first time and 9 the second!), listened with my stethescope to the racing heartbeats of the puppies while they were still inside her and could often see them moving around in the final couple of weeks before whelping. During this stage, your bitch’s teats (mammary glands) will begin to get bigger and sometime in the final week of pregnancy they will begin to secrete milk or colostrum (colostrum looks a bit more like custard than milk, it is thicker, more yellow and stickier than milk. Colostrum is normally secreted at the beginning of lactation and has a number of antibodies in it for the pups, so it is important to make sure that they all get a drink of the colostrum after whelping) For more information on diet and exercise during a canine pregnancy, click here.
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