Recently, I have come across a few questions about whether is it ok to feed chocolate to teacup chihuahuas.

There you are, sitting on the sofa with your tea cup chihuahua sitting next to you. You break off a piece of chocolate from the bar and suddenly you have this furry little face pressed up against yours, looking longingly at your chocolate. What would it hurt just to give her a small piece? Nothing bad would happen, right?

My recommendation to you would be to resist those sad eyes. Chocolate is not good for your tea cup chihuahua (in fact for dogs in general).

There are 2 compounds present in chocolate which can spell trouble for teacup chihuahuas. These are caffeine and a compound called theobromine, both of which are found in cocoa beans. Of the two, theobromine is found in higher concentrations in cocoa beans than caffeine.

The actual amount of theobromine and caffeine present in the chocolate depends on the type of chocolate you are munching on. For example, dry cocoa powder has the highest concentrations of theobromine and caffeine (0.8 g of both compounds in one ounce of powder)per ounce, while milk chocolate contains 0.06 g of theobromine and caffeine per ounce. White chocolate has the lowest amount of cocoa in it and so has relatively low levels of these compounds.

But why are these compounds dangerous?

Theobromine in particular is removed from the dog’s bloodstream very slowly and so hangs around for a significant period of time (around 18 hours). During this time, theobromine can damage your tea cup chihuahua’s heart and kidneys.

Obviously, the more chocolate teacup chihuahuas consume, the greater the risk of theobromine causing damage.

Based on data from the ASPCA’s poison unit, significant toxic effects can be seen around 0.05g of theobromine per kg bodyweight of you teacup chihuahua. Since teacup chihuahuas tend not to weigh very much (in the order of a few pounds), I’m sure you can see that she wouldn’t need to consume very much of it to cause your tea cup chihuahua a serious problem.

What are the signs of chocolate poisoning?

Your tea cup chihuahua may exhibit signs of increased excitability and general restlessness. You may also see vomiting and diarrhea. If your tea cup chihuahua exhibits any of these symptoms after eating chocolate, have a vet assess her as soon as possible.

In summary, if you want to give your teacup chihuahuas a treat (and let’s face it, who stops at one tea cup chihuahua?) break open a bag of doggie treats instead!

Quite apart from chocolate, there are a number of other things that can be dangerous to dogs. Here are some additional resources for you to learn more!

• Poisonous Food For Dogs – Pet Health Forums – Dogs Health Big or small, fat or skinny, puppy or senior! Discuss all things related to Dog’s Health here! Dog illnesses are a very serious thing to deal with. Let’s help each other find the best course of action. Here is a list and some talk about things you should never feed your dog.

There are some who think that breeding teacup chihuahuas or even dog breeding in general can make them some fast cash but they fail to realize that dog breeding involves a lot of time, energy, vets’ bills and registration fees. As I mentioned in a previous post – Teacup Chihuahuas, there are a number of things to be considered before breeding teacup chihuahuas.

For example, you must have a sound tea cup chihuahua bitch from which to breed. You must also recognize when your bitch comes into estrus as this is the only time that she can become pregnant.

Your tea cup chihuahua bitch must have an excellent pedigree and be free from all disease and parasites. She should also be checked over by your own vet to ensure that she is healthy for breeding. Your stud dog must also have the same attributes. Should there be a fault in an otherwise sound bitch, it can sometimes be corrected in the puppies by mating to a stud dog that lacks that fault. The parent teacup chihuahuas should have genes worthy of passing on.

The person that thinks, “Oh, I’ll just do it once before I get her spayed” or,”it would be wonderful for the kids to see” has no place as a breeder. You must firstly love teacup chihuahuas and be prepared to make certain sacrifices for your dogs and puppies. Show dogs can be bred but pet dogs, no, no ,no! Although most dogs have some faults, the show dog is less likely to have a lot of them. Please bear in mind that if your dogs are not AKC registered, they should not be bred.

Something to consider is that teacup chihuahuas often need c-sections. Please ask yourself if you can afford this, it can be very expensive. They can be carrying a lot of tea cup chihuahua puppies or the pups may simply have large heads thus requiring surgery to get them out of the mother. Some mother dogs reject their offspring after birth or do not produce enough milk to feed them adequately. This is particularly true if the mother does not have enough calcium. If this is the case your vet will need to give her a shot to prevent seizures. This shot contains calcium and vitamin D. If your tea cup chihuahua bitch shows any abnormal signs after delivering her puppies, like vomiting, calcium deficiency should be suspected.

Fading puppy syndrome can happen occasionally. The tea cup chihuahua pup will appear healthy one day, bright-eyed and happy but will then stop eating and will go downhill rapidly. I can only suggest that you keep the puppy warm and attempt to feed it every two hours, if this does not work and the pup continues to fail then it is better to let it go. Some breeders of teacup chihuahuas try so hard to hand-rear their pups but this is not the natural way and the sickly pup may die anyway in spite of everything being done to save it.

Sometimes the mother can risk her life. The tea cup chihuahua mother could contract an infection after birth. Are you prepared to lose her if problems happen during delivery? You would then have to raise the teacup chihuahua pups yourself and there is much more that a mother dog can teach her pups that we cannot. The puppies would be fed every two hours, their rears must be wiped with a soft damp cloth to stimulate elimination, a source of heat must be provided and even then, you may lose some pups.

Please think very seriously before breeding teacup chihuahuas (or even any breed). After all, so many dogs end up in shelters because their owners did not do their homework.

If you would like some additional information about breeding chihuahuas, these posts from other sites may be of interest to you:

The world’s smallest dog, teacup chihuahuas originally came from a northern part of Mexico sharing the same name, Chihuahua. It is thought that the Mayans made models of a similar dog and depicted the same in their paintings.. These pieces were thought to be from the 5th century AD so it could be assumed that this was the first human to canine relationship.

A native people of Mexico also cared for a small dog called the Techichi. The dog was apparently small with long legs long hair and a slightly humped backed. The toltecs were eventually conquered by the Aztecs and they also kept these little dogs as pets. It was customary to burn the dog of the owner at his funeral!

Many people looking for a chihuahua are attracted to teacup chihuahuas. These are the smallest of an already tiny breed, although I have seen “micro teacups” advertised.

A normal chihuahua weighs around five to six pounds whereas a tea cup chihuahua weighs less than four pounds.   Hypoglycemia or low blood sugar levels are more common in teacup chihuahuas. In much the same way as a human diabetic, the tea cup chihuahua can use more physical energy than it has glycogen reserves in the liver. This means that the tea cup chihuahua can rapidly show symptom like fatigue, shaking and finally fitting.

Treatment is available from your vet for this condition and will probably involve giving glucose and fluids to the animal, but if your teacup chihuahua is still walking and can take fluid, give plenty of sugar in water or try some Mountain Dew, both will help the problem. Regular small meals will ensure that dips in blood sugar level are much less common.

Another problem with teacup chihuahuas is the possibility of a larger molera.  The molera is the equivalent of a baby’s soft spot on it’s head. In some tea cup chihuahuas this never heals and therefore taking extra care to ensure that things like table legs are wrapped in bubble wrap is essential. To prevent injury to your tea cup chihuahua, take a good look around your home and tea cup chihuahua proof it! Baby gates are useful items  to keep your chihuahua contained.. It is also a good idea to teach children how to behave with tea cup chihuahua puppies. No vigorous play, you should teach your children how to hold your  tea cup chihuahua and above all, how to be extremely careful with him.

Larger chihuahuas are usually a better choice for young children..

Teacup chihuahuas like to play out with other chihuahuas and many people that I know hold parties for their tea cup chihuahuas!  One word of warning, if you live in a state where birds of prey are common, always supervise your teacup chihuahuas, they make ideal meals for hawks and the like!

When choosing your puppy, it is always best if you can go to see the breeder. You should be able to see the parents of your potential acquisition as well as receiving a health guarantee from the breeder. If you are particularly interested in teacup chihuahuas, make sure the your pup is not the runt of the litter. It can be easy to pass off the runt as a tea cup chihuahua simply because it is small for it’s age. More important than everything else, your teacup chihuahua may choose you!

If you enjoyed this article, please grab the feed as we will be adding new posts regularly. In the meantime, here are some additional resources you may find helpful!

• teacup chihuahuas – a breed profile – teacup chihuahuas are so popular at the moment – and have starred in many recent hollywood movies! one film was even just about chihuahuas – nothing else! these tiny little dogs are very similar to standard chihuahuas as there is no …

• teacup chihuahuas – teacup chihuahuas are one of the cutest dogs in the entire world, and seeing those adorable little dogs dressed up in the movies makes them tempting to want one for yourself, but is a teacup chihuahua right for you? …

• Teacup puppies Sat, 17 Oct 2009 00:16:39 CDT – The weather will also affect teacup chihuahuaѕ moгe thаn otherѕ. Consider getting yοuг chihuahua а sweater fοr the winter time tο gіve some extra warmth and proteсtion.Teacup chihuahuas can make wondeгfυl pets. …