I’ve been breeding dogs since 2005, and YES, I learned through trial and error that food does indeed affect heat cycles, fertility, litter size and thriftiness of the pups. I have fed brands that, without a single doubt in my mind, caused dangerously early delivery, lack of milk production, even what closely resembled a temporary fading puppy syndrome. I had pups only a day or two old that developed weeping, metallic smelling sores which disappeared entirely almost immediately after a food switch. I have older adult bitches raised on foods that caused heat cycle irregularities and low fertility rates in my kennel who to this day are infertile or have only come into heat a handful of times. I have pups with hitching issues that were weaned onto puppy foods that were too high protein, but had levels of calcium lower than adult food levels in a sorry bid to prevent growth issues (this was Eukanuba, btw).
On that note, if I want a bitch to come into heat, I feed Purina ONE adult 26/16. I use that until 2-3 weeks before the due date, then switch to either ONE puppy or Puppy Chow. Quite honestly, at this point, I don’t trust anything but Purina when it comes to the husbandry of a breeding kennel. Just personally had too many problems with the fancier foods, all of which were fixed by Purina in one form or another…
