Everyone always wants to get the smallest chihuahua puppy possible. First of all, chihuahuas were not meant to weigh 2 pounds. They are healthier if they weigh between 4-6 pounds. If you have children under the age of 15, I will still sell you a chihuahua because I know you will get one no matter what. The only thing I will not do is sell you a chihuahua, especially a t cup without warning you about the dangers that are potentially ahead waiting for you and your future puppy. Granted it is possible for a family with small responsible children to have a puppy and raise it without harming it, but it is difficult. Even if your children are careful and do not crush or drop the puppy, they still may cause it harm. Chihuahuas, especially the smaller ones need constant care. This does not mean that they need to be played with all day long. This means that they need to be supervised. It is very important that their eating and drinking habits are monitored. If they never get a chance to settle down, eat, sleep, and drink because they are being used as play toys for children, they can quickly start going down hill. They can go from a bouncing baby to a very sick baby within hours. Once they start going down hill with low blood sugar, you will have to tend to them every 2-3 hours until they are 4 months old, maybe longer. You may also have to take them to the emergency room and keep them there for days. It may end up costing you more money than the puppy costs in no time.
All puppies are suspect able to many problems just like all children are. They get sick all the time. With a larger puppy, you treat them for most problems, and go about your day. With a t cup chihuahua puppy, the illness is usually not the only problem you have to contend with. When they get sick, they do not eat or drink all day. This triggers hypoglycemia (low blood sugar). Now, you have to not only deal with the original problem, you also have to deal with the low blood sugar. Low blood sugar is easy to treat if you have the time to tend to them all day long for months. If you do not have the patience or the time to deal with it, the puppy will most likely die. This means all day and all night monitoring. In other words, t cup chihuahuas can add a lot of stress to your life. It is no fun watching a 1.3 pound puppy go into hypoglyimic shock. They cry and seizure all day and all night. They totally depend on you to cater to their every need. You see why I say that t cups are not toys. T cups typically have a larger soft spot on the top of their heads. This soft spot does not close most of the time. When a t cup bumps into something, the dog or puppy can easily suffer brain damage. This is just another issue that needs to be addressed when considering a t cup. They are simply a lot more fragile than a toy. All chihuahuas have a soft spot to some degree in most cases, but it is hard to find a t cup that does not. It all depends on the genetics of the puppy, and what the breeder is trying to accomplish. Are they trying to produce puppies that the public thinks they want at any cost just to be able to make sales, or are they more concerned with the welfare of the puppies.
Bringing home a puppy puts a lot of stress on the puppy. They are in total shock when they leave one place and go to the next. If they are shipped, this adds to the stress. My advise to someone wanting a dog that only weighs about 3 pounds is to let the breeder keep the puppy until they are at least 3 months. If the breeder is not willing to do this, I would not purchase a puppy from them. This shows that they do not care for the puppy and only want to push them out of their house. Breeders know that raising a t cup until it is 12 weeks rather than 8 weeks is a real burden. Many breeders would rather get rid of the puppy fast. This way, if any problems develop, it is somebody else's problem. I do not look at it that way. I am dedicated to what I do. I would never compromise the health of one of my puppies like that. If the customer really wants them at 8 weeks, they can have them, but I want them to read this warning first. I realize that the puppies can leave here and be fine, but I also realize that problems are likely to happen in at least one of my t cup puppies. I would not feel right if I did not warn the buyer about what they are getting into. It is also important that the buyer understands that it may be costly to keep a puppy alive once it starts to go down hill. I have a lot of experience with tiny chihuahuas and can do a lot of things medically necessary to bring the puppy back to health without spending a small fortune at the vets office. I have actually gotten so good at raising these little guys that I have not had one have low blood sugar since 2010. I know exactly how to raise them now. I feed the super tiny ones 3 times a day once they leave their mothers at 6 weeks, and make sure they run right to the food. If they do not, I assume something is not right and needs to be addressed. I always find out what that is. This way, my puppies never get to the point of having low blood sugar. This is a real blessing because it is the puppies that get sick when they are young that continue to be a problem for the breeder and the new owner. If you stop it before they are 8 weeks old, they turn into fat little healthy piggies that always want to eat just like a normal puppy as long as they were bred properly and do not have underlying issues associated with bad breeding just to get t cups.
I am not writing this and sending potential customers to this page to scare anyone off. I am in the business to sell puppies, but I do not want to sell the wrong puppy to the wrong person. I put a lot of time, care, and most of all, love into raising my puppies. When I sell them, I like to know that they are going to remain just as healthy as they are when they leave here.
The pictures below are a graphic explanation of what can happen if a breeder sells you a puppy that is super tiny.
This is Bouncer as a puppy in 2006. He weighs 2.7 pounds now full grown. He was perfectly healthy when this picture was taken. Two days later,
I woke up to find him looking like this: (see below)
This is how he looked when I woke up. Granted, he has a lot of kyro syrup all over him from me trying to save his life,
but other than that, this is what I woke up to. Bouncer almost died that day, and almost died three times after that.
I saved him each time, but after the first time he crashed, I did not go to bed at night without getting up every 3 hours to feed
him for about 3 more months. A person working all day, would have came home to a dead puppy. If you want to deal with this, feel free to
purchase a 1 pound puppy. There are tons of breeders out there willing to sell you one. I will sell you one too, but only if you do not
work and are fully aware that this could very well happen to your puppy. Obviously, it happens here too, but the stress of going to another
home only adds to the possibility of this happening. I will not ship a puppy under no circumstances unless he/she weighs 2 pounds.
If someone is willing to ship you a 1 pound puppy, hopefully, you not only do not work, but you also have empty credit cards that
are ready to be charged up at the vet's office. Oh, and if your children really really really want a tiny puppy like this, (Mommy please)
think of how heart sick they are going to be when their little play toy dies. In other words, these are living creatures, not play toys
for your children. Bring your children home a 3 pound puppy to play with. They will have just as much fun, and the puppy will probably survive.
Bouncer update: Bouncer is full grown super healthy and weighs 2.7 lbs. He is one of the best studs I have.
On October 17th, 2007, I woke up to find this in my nursery.
Socialite's little boy had showed no previous signs of hypoglycemia,
and had no reason to be stressed out.
He was 11.5 weeks old, old enough to not have this happen, but since I was not paying attention to how much he was or was not eating it did.
Can you imagine how stressed he would be if he were at a different home?
If it were not for the fact that I acted quickly and had the equipment necessary
to help him recover, he would have died. This is what I get for sleeping all night without
checking on my puppies. Update: Thank goodness this does not happen here anymore and has not for 3 years. I finally know how to prevent this. Inexperienced breeders or breeders that are not as aware of how to prevent this like I was, do not.
The puppy did get better, and is now a happy adult in his new home..
I waited until he was heathy to let him go, and he looked healthy but was not healthy for a few months.
The new owners would have no recourse if the puppy died of hypoglycemia either.
That is not a genetic issue and any court of law would side with the breeder, especially
if the breeder lied, like they always do, and said the puppy was fine in the past.
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