‘The feeding of bitches in whelp or when rearing puppies calls for special consideration as regards the vitamins necessary. On this subject Professor Mellanby says that if bitches are fed during pregnancy on diets deficient in Vitamin D, then the pups have a greater tendency to develop rickets. This tendency in the young is not entirely removed by a period of good diet, but may become evident again at any later period of defective feeding. He also points out that the mother supplies from her own store essential substances not supplied in her diet (frequently resulting in frail offspring and ill-health of the mother) , a direct result of the deficiency at birth of these necessary constituents, which ought to be supplied in abundance to the embryos at birth. Under these dietetic conditions in fact, not only are the puppy teeth defective in structure, but the ill-health of the mother and the effort made by the maternal tissues to meet an abnormal situation. If a bitch’s food is deficient in Vitamin D and in Vitamins A and E, the puppies will suffer both before and after birth, because before birth the essential properties required for the building-up of strong, healthy offspring will be wanting, whilst after birth the milk produced will not be equal to the demands made upon it. On the other hand, again to quote Professor Mellanby, a diet strong in calcifying action given to the mother during pregnancy and lactation allows the storage in the offspring of those substances having this influence, and that this store may be drawn upon by the young animals when they have to fend for themselves. Rickets in winter-born puppies are said to be due to the absence of sunlight which both the expectant mother and the newly born puppies both experience at this time of year. Scientists tell us that the effect of direct sunlight upon the body is to increase the vitamins in the fats of the body automatically. This shows the importance of breeding puppies at the right time of year, and also of giving every in-whelp bitch plenty of open-air exercise, so that she may benefit as far as possible by direct sunlight.’