So you have decided on a Chihuahua and want

a tiny one?

Please take the time to read from the many

happy owners of tiny dogs to make sure

it's what you want.

We brought Fitz, our chihuahua cross maltese, around a year and a half ago, we made some pretty big mistakes, but we were relativly new to the dog world, and stupid me did research after I brought my dog, not before.
First of all we brought sight unseen from a newspaper. We had my father in law pick him up, even after the previous owners wanted to meet in a public place. He was several hours from us, and my father in law was coming through the town in question on a trip to see us.
I do believe that the previous owners cared for him, his hair was in lovely condition, and he came with his worming medicine, and his toys, and blanket, as well as some food. I also talked to the previous owners the next day, and they were very happy to hear he had made it home ok, and that he was setttling in well. We were informed that he was the result of an accidental mating, and he was one of two pups in the litter. He was also the smallest, his brother was twice his size.
He was tiny! So small! And very very cute! The first couple of days were hard on us, he did not want to eat solid food, and often threw up what little he did eat.
We finally got him to eat, and after trying several different foods, found one that did not upset him too much (although he was still throwing up on occasion). When he came home he was 600 grams, by his 12 week vaccination, he was up to 800 grams.
He had a white spot on one eye, very cloudy, when we took him to the vet we were told that he had scratched his eye, and that the cloudieness was due to this injury, to this day he still has a small amount of cloudieness on his eye (although it is improving), this injury has made him somewhat clumsy.
Everything was fine for a while, he was still throwing up occasionally but it had settled down somewhat. One night he started to look really ill, he was having problems breathing, and was not moving much, we checked his gums, and they were pale (a sure sign that he was not receiving enough oxygen). We rushed him to the vets, and on the way there he stopped breathing, I massaged him, and thankfully he started up again, but I really thought that I had lost him. The vet diagnosed him with tonsilitis (after a reconsultation, he actually had an infection, not tonsilitis, and was treated successfully with antibiotics), we were charged an arm and a leg for after hours care, but it was worth it when he recovered enough to return to his normal, happy self.
Again he went back to throwing up occasionally, and was by this time over a kilo, but putting weight on him has been a constant challenge.
We moved house, and again he was sick occasionally, but was now going a few weeks without throwing up (thankfully). We got a new vet in our new town, and we were told that these small dogs often fail to thrive, he was now up to 2 kilos, but still looking far too thin, and wasted. He was put on some tabulets to calm his stomach acids down, and these were effective for a few weeks, before he started to get sick again.
He had not had another serious bout of sickness like he had before, but we have seen mild cases of the same thing, we now know to get him to the vet straight away for another treatment of antibiotics. He gets infections of his liver, as well as mild feet infections.
If his throwing up gets bad now, we are to give him another course of medication, to help calm his stomach down, and if he gets sick, and depressed looking, or if he over heats, we know to get him to the vet immediatly!
When we wanted to desex him, we had to wait till his weight was up, and he did not recover as swiftly as other dogs I have known. We needed to confine him, and he was on light exercise and lots of rest till the stitches came out.
Living with such an ill dog has taught me many things, smaller is not better when it comes to toy dogs, desexing pet animals is vital to prevent this type of suffering, and you need to look at a dog, and their parents to make an informed decision on your future companion.
Amie Veigel,
Email address- amieveigel@msn.com

Someone in my neighbourhood has a Min Pin that is really really tiny. Runt of the litter, rejected by mum and handfed, he barely made it to adult. He is approx. 1.5 kilos. He has epilepsy, keeping him at a healthy (for his size) weight is a constant battle as he has many and severe food allergies. He gets too cold and too warm very easily, having very little temperature regulation. He also has a very nervous disposition.

People should consider why a dog is tiny, and what has caused it. Disease, malnutrition and other issues like that are often the reason..

Rosie

My youngest, was the runt of her litter. While she is on the main register she is in my opinion NO SHOWDOG!
She weighs 1.6kg, gets a lot of stomach problems, has a bad front, elbows flare out, bent under-developed tail, gets very cold very quickly and needs to be very well supervised with larger dogs.
Aside from the extremely high costs we paid to get her, we have spent a few thousand dollars in the 3 months we have had her on vet bills. She is on a special diet which costs me almost as much as my food every week, and I have to have the heater on all the time.
For us the cost is no issue but the constant worry is. I'd go to the ends of the earth for my dogs but I know there are a lot of people out there who want an extra tiny dog for fashion's sake. We did not intend to adopt this pup, in fact we were after another but when we arrived at the breeders house from the airport all tired (with a other pup in toe) we walked into the room where the puppies were and one little pup bolted over to us and wouldn't leave. The one we were there to see wasn't overly interested nor were any of the other pups- just this little angel.

She is the most wonderful special little girl in the world, but these types of "special" dogs should only go to "special" homes where someone is there to give them all the extra time and care they need to thrive. It is not easy and people shouldn't go out in search of underweight unhealthy dogs.

Freaks of nature happen, they shouldn't be planned. It isn't fair on the dogs.

There are many Pet owners out there who have found themselves in the exact same situation as we find ourselves with our Sam.  I found myself relating to so many of  these people, particularly the lady who expressed so much excitement each time she went to the Vet and her little one had actually gained a few grams !!!.  Oh to be able to put some weight on our little Man, no can do though.  Have to if anything, keep him a little trim (that's  a laugh isn't it) Cant carry too much weight, with his wonky Hip, cant have any added strain on his back end, so we struggle to even get him to hit the scales at 2 kilo, and there in lies the biggest problem of all, how healthy, how robust can any dog of not quite 2 kilo (Sam weighs 1.8 kilo) really be?  They just cant, they are a constant worry, and as you know in our case, will continue to require regular trips to the Vet for all of his life.  I probably also need to include in Sam's list of health issues, his Molera, Sam's is Big, our Vet has informed us that Sam's will more than likely not close over any further, so problem No.2.  Be careful with him, make sure he doesn't bump his head, play too rough, bumping his head in that spot, well don't need to go into detail there do we, I think we all know that scenario.  But we love this little fella, all 1.8 kilo of him !!!!.  Small in size, but what he lacks in that direction, he more than makes up for in temperament.  He is an absolute delight, such a loving little dog.  He's one of the lucky ones I guess.  We are prepared to do whatever is needed to keep our little Sam pain free and healthy, maybe other people wouldn't or more to the point, couldn't afford too.  Vet visits are costly, and when you have a little one that will require 3 monthly check ups for all of his life, as our Sam will, it can turn into an expense that a lot of people if placed in this situation, could not upkeep.

So some of the general public out there want a "Tea Cup" Chi. (What a ridiculous name).  How do you educate them, try and get through to them that "Less is not Best" In some cases you just wont, and what hope do you have when that Web Site (From America I think) does nothing but advertise "Tea Cup" Chihuahua's, its so wrong, but there're getting away with it and making big bucks along the way.   

Mal, Chi owner.

From past experiences, smallest of ANY species will have a lot of health problems.

In the past, whenever choosing a pet, I'll admit for choosing the 'runt' of the litter, but not for breeding purposes.

In my younger days... about 1 decade and a half ago, my goal was to be a vet, so I did an animal technician course (one of the early steps for Vets to be) before my finances, or lack thereof, made my change my career decisions.

But it's helped my confidence in that I can care for weaker animals. So I always choose the runt as I know that, in my care, they'll survive and thrive. When someone handed me a half grown cat 12 years ago (who I very quickly discovered to be pregnant when I got her - they didn't know because she was so thin at the time), I cared for her till she had her kittens, then I had to hand raise her kittens because she wanted nothing to do with them. I then found her and most of the kittens a new home, but keeping the runt who was less than half the size and shockingly underweight (it turns out that all the fleas from the mother cat went straight to this one, so she almost died of being so drained of blood at such a young age).

She survived this ordeal but for the rest of her life, she's only half the size of a normal cat her age, but she's had respiratory problems all her life, prone to 'sniffles' and colds, and no matter how much she eats, she's always underweight. I'm pround to say that she's 12 yrs old now, and still going strong (as she can be....)

Added to this, for nearly 2 decades, I've been breeding pet mice. At first for competitions and breed, then later for local pet stores. It never failed that the mice who remained smaller than the normal mice in size had a drastically shorter life span, and was always much weaker. Any extreme changes in weather temperature (despite them kept indoors), would also cause them to die at a much younger stage. For this reason, I never sold the smaller mice.

I never bred smaller size females for the same reason, and also for the fact that they weren't strong enough to handle the breeding. Even though I only let my mice have 2 - 3 litters a year, I always made sure that the mice I chose for breathing were amongst the biggest females with the strongest looking body structure. I'm not talking 'plump' either. I'm talking about well formed visible muscles in shoulders and legs, and a strong head. This may sound silly to people who know little about mice, but when you're breeding them, this simple rule is just as important as size and history of a dog.

That's just my experience on smaller sized animals. Not sure if you'd find this of any use or not, but at least I tried.

Well let see what are the joys of owing a Teacup (runt).

This is the main joy.

The next door neighbour asked me over the fence if I knew a number of an emergency vet for her dog who seemed under the weather.
I could rattle off 3 vets ER numbers off by heart.
A Teacup will certainly widen your circle of acquaintances.
With a Teacup you will become very good friends with your vet and with specialists covering different ailments such as the heart, eyes, ears and skin.

All lovely people but I wish my circle was much smaller.

The vet and I both thought my dog was deaf it seems she can hear but it does not register in her brain, she has the memory and attention span of a gold fish, it is like Groundhog day - every morning we begin training again.

I used to think people making dogs wear clothes all the time were foolish. Yep I am doing that now.

Why?
This morning before I left for work even though it was a balmy morning of 16 degrees, I place on her a T-shirt and then a polar jacket. Because she cannot regulate her body temperature and was shaking so hard she looked blurred.

Food is an interesting subject as well. She will not put on weight, once the vet and I were over the moon that she had put on 25 grams till we realised it was her jacket, collar and jewellery.
She will eat but her stomach will not hold much so teaspoons of food through the day need to be fed.
When she become ill as last time with an upset stomach (yes has to have special food) she had to be rushed to the emergency vet (they know me by my first name now) placed on a drip because of her tiny size and the worry was she has not reserves of fat she could fade quickly and also dehydration.

Even when she is "healthy" we have to see the vet once a fortnight as her anal glands need expressing. The special food does not have too much fibre. If too much fibre is given she has bloody diahorrea, then again off to the emergency vet.

I will have to admit groomins is so easy, she is wash and wear. Because of her small size some of her glands do not function well and she has a good head of hair and that is just about it. The hair grows is very brittle snaps off and we start again.

I work at present to mainly pay off the vet bills.

Also I have the future to look forward to. She has a spine that feels like a dinasour ridged spine and arthritis is a on the cards.

She does have a perfect nose.

I love her heaps but I can seen once the desire for "Teacups" meaning runts is over the pounds will be overflowing with this expensive fashion accessory.

 

There's a couple of stories on here, under stories.

For Midget. She's a bitch. In the street version of "Bitch"

Obstropolous, hard to get along with, bossy little bloody madam.

Don't let her out of the puppy penthouse the very second she is finished dinner and she carries on a treat.

Stone deaf to boot. The result of a parti-colour to dilute (Cream) breeding. Too much white around her head.

What else can I tell you about her. She has a deformed mouth. Parrot mouth. Means her bottom teeth are so crowded together they rot. She has 4 open moleras.  An irregular heart beat and two grade 4 patellae.  That's what will get her in the end.

She gets around ok for now by locking her knees together to hold herself up. But scare her so she moves suddenly, hard not to do when she can't hear you and she falls over and has trouble getting up.  She'll probably be ok this summer but next winter will find her getting the final solution. 

Yvonne hand raised her because her mother refused her. Every 4 hours around the clock for about 4 weeks.  By the time we knew it was a mistake, it was too late. How do you end something you've fought so hard to keep alive?

Every single person that comes here LOVES her, but not one is fully prepared for the truth.

She's too bloody small and is going to die because of it.

From Jim (Mindibown Kennels - now closed)

Mindy's story.

Mindy and her sister were born from a c-s and straight away we noticed that Mindy was too tiny.  her dam would not feed them due to having a c-s but still my mother persisted feeding this little tiny pup.  thats what we initially thought until the dam fed the other puppy but not poor Mindy and refused to, she kept snapping at her.  Poor Mindy.  she was just too tiny and we often refer to her as a freak of nature as that is what the tiny tiny chihuahuas are.  they are small for a reason, this puppy did not get much substance from the mother and kept getting pushed off so my mother bottle fed her and carried her around in a pouch for warmth.  so that is how she survived in those early days.  Now she is fully grown but still half the size of the others, fully grown weighs in at only 2lbs and you can tell her legs are stunted in growth as well as her back. 

 We think she is retarded, because they often forget to feed themselves and so my parents have to feed this little dog 3 times a day and she will just pick.  if they leave her as I suggested, she just gets really thin and weak.  so hence why she is a high maintenance dog and they can't leave her anywhere outside with the other dogs they bowl her over and also wherever they travel she is with them. 

 People should think before getting these small dogs although little and cute they require a lot of hard work to feed and look after because they are too fragile.

 Louise Ray

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