Caring For the Akita Mother After Birth

The mother is feeding the puppies and therefore her diet is extremely important. Although during her pregnancy you have not given her excessive amounts of food, you may now feed as much as you like. She will tell you what she needs. During the first few days she will not be ravenous. The puppies are small and she will have made ample milk for their needs. A high-protein diet and plenty of water is the best formula for producing milk, and Akita mothers produce what appears to be gallons of it. We have never known such a plentiful supply in any other breed. As the days go by, the flow will increase and as the puppies grow stronger they will enjoy it immensely. We would supplement her diet with a little natural calcium, such as bonemeal, but nothing else unless the vet advised it. Porridge and milk do not produce milk; all they do is fill the mother's stomach without giving any goodness to the puppies.

The mother's health and well-being are most important. She should be inspected frequently. Her teats should be examined to ensure they are not damaged or swollen. There should be no swelling or hardness of the areas around the teats which might lead to milk fever (mastitis). The vulva should gradually become smaller, but it will be very tender as it is undoubtedly bruised from the birth. This will not be visible because of the dark colouring. Any discharge, other than a small amount of mucus- stained clear red from blood, should be reported to your vet and investigated. Any odour of any kind should also be investigated.

The Akita Inu bitch's mental health should be monitored. She should appear well and be happy in her eyes and expression. She should eat and drink almost normally, although she will need more water and you should ensure she has an adequate supply. Staining from the discharge should be wiped away and a mild disinfectant should be used in an attempt to deter any flies. Care should be taken not to mask her natural smell, as this is how the puppies know her. Keep a regular check on the toilet of both mother and babies. A common occurrence is to observe a puppy grunting unhappily, suffering from constipation. Mother may also suffer from this, as her normal exercise has been drastically reduced. A small drink of warm milk, sweetened with sugar, or ideally with natural honey, should ease the problem. If you make the drink too sweet, you will get the opposite problem, so it is easy to regulate until you get it right.