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 We
are amazed at so many people wanting to buy a
so-called "Teacup" puppy. Thus the reason we are writing this
piece concerning our views
about the phenomenon of so many people wanting a "so-called
teacup" puppy.
Puppies aren't toys; they are living breathing babies that need
love and attention, not to spend half of their life in someone's
HOT purse!
Please take the time to read this and educate yourself! The
lives of many little
dogs depend on you educating yourself, and others, not to buy
into this phase.
Thank you for taking the time to read this!
This is a topic that most assuredly needs to be brought to the
attention of perspective puppy buyers.
Let's start out by saying "THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A
"TEACUP" PUPPY".
With that in mind, let me say this; It seems as though there is
a plethora of people who are insistent on buying tiny puppies in
the 2 to 4 pound range. Also commonly referred to as a "Teacup
puppy".
The word "Teacup" has been used to merely describe the size of a
puppy, meaning it is very small and will probably be under the
standard size which is 4 to 7 pounds for the Toy Group,
Yorkshire Terrier breed. We cannot imagine anyone wanting
anything smaller than that! Their bones are VERY fragile and
can be broken by jumping off of a couch, falling off of a bed,
being stepped on or worse.
Many breeders, while tacking a whooping price on a puppy,
"claim" to breed so called "teacups" as if they were a breed all
their own. Don't be fooled! They are NOT a breed of their own.
If a breeder says they specialize in "teacups" RUN, RUN, RUN for
the hills! Most "TEACUP" puppies are in reality, a premature
puppy.
Most females are bred on the ninth through the fifteenth day of
their heat cycles. Eggs can be fertilized for up to 72 hours
after any of these breeding's. Therefore, it is possible to have
puppies conceived up to a week or so younger than the puppies
first conceived in a litter. However, when the first puppies
conceived are mature and ready to be born, labor starts and all
the puppies will be born, no matter when they were fertilized.
Some of the problems that may be encountered are both genetic
and congenital in these tiny babies and the list is a long one.
The risk of open fontanels (soft spot from the cranial bone not
forming), portosystemic shunts (PSS-
abnormal vessel that allows blood
to bypass the liver. As a result the blood is not cleansed by
one of the bodies filters: the liver.),
hypoglycemia, cardiac problems, collapsing trachea, luxating
patellas, Leggs Calves Perthes disease, seizures, hydroencephaly,
blindness and digestive problems can be increased in these tiny
babies.
Problems such as respiratory problems can remain or worsen
throughout their lives. These babies frequently are so fragile
that they do not live more than a few years. There have been
several tiny Yorkies as adults who still had open fontanels and
their owners had to carry nourishment with them all the time.
Their vets have felt it unsafe to give a full dose of vaccine so
the puppies had to get several injections to be on the safe
side.
There is no such thing as a "tea cup" Yorkshire Terrier,
Maltese, Poodle, or any other breed for that matter. They
simply do not exist. "Tea-cup" is just a marketing ploy
given by unethical and unscrupulous breeders to drive up the
price of their puppies!
So called "Teacups" fetch anything from $1000 to $10,000! This
is ridiculous and shameful! There are a lot of chronically,
unhealthy puppies because unscrupulous breeders and puppy mills
are inbreeding. Some poor darlings only live for a very, very
short time!
They take the little teeny, tiny Yorkies and they breed 2 1/2
pounders with 3 pounders ... well, they’re playing with
genetics. You should NEVER breed a female of any breed less than
5 pounds.
PLEASE educate yourselves before buying a tiny puppy whether it
is a Yorkie or any other breed. You could be in for months or
years of heartbreak not to mention staggering
veterinarian bills!
DO YOUR HOMEWORK!!! IF YOU WANT A HEALTHY PUPPY, DON'T FALL FOR
THE TEACUP ACT!
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What are
people saying about "Teacup Dogs"?
My name is
Bailee N. and I
had no idea that
teacup puppies
were bad. I
always thought
they were fine
because if they
weren't I didn't
think they would
be allowed to
sell them.
Anyway, I bought
a teacup Maltese
this past
Saturday and
fell absolutely
in love with it,
but it died
earlier today in
the care of a
vet. It had many
of the problems
you mentioned in
the information
about teacups. I
had no idea and
all of my
friends didn't
know teacups
were bad either.
I bought a
teacup Maltese
on Saturday
April 4th she
was an early
graduation
present from my
parents and I
got to pick her
out. I was
looking at
puppies for
hours when I saw
this one. She
was absolutely
adorable, and I
fell in love.
She laid in my
arms and fell
asleep. She was
really easy, but
I thought it was
just because of
her personality
and the fact
that she was
tired. I didn't
know it was
because she was
sick. She died
two days later.
This is what the
vet wrote about
Lily. --- Lily
is dehydrated,
she is
hypoglycemic,
she has diarrea
with blood. This
pup is
hypothermic Temp
is 97.7 she
weighs 10.5
ounces (.66
lbs). She has
two intestinal
parasites that
are protozoal
infection and
not worms, she
might have had
round worms I
saw part of a
parasite egg
that looks like
a round worm
egg, because her
stool is so
loose I cannot
properly
evaluate the
stool for other
parasites. She
has an open
fontanel (soft
spot) on top of
her head some of
these pups with
the will lead a
normal life,
some will
develop
hydrocephalus
and epilepsy.
She died at
11:35am on
Monday April, 6.
The vet also
said that Lily
would have been
more likely to
survive if she
wasn't so tiny,
but her little
body couldn't
handle the
stress.
I would like
to volunteer in
any way and get
the word out
about how
unhealthy it is
to breed
"teacups". If
there are any
opputunities I
would love to
know about them.
--Bailee N. |
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I bought a puppy from --------- Pups
in S.D. The pup was 8-weeks old when we purchased it, but the
breeder had us wait until the puppy was 12 weeks old to take her
home, stating she wanted to give it it's 3rd set of shots before
releasing her. The puppy would not eat on her own and I had to
hand feed it 4 times a day and give it Nutrical 4 times a day
followed by water given with a syringe. It was like having a
baby you had to breast feed. The puppy weighed 1 pound 2 ounces
when I brought her home. The puppy was at 1 pound 5 ounces when
she died 6 weeks later. The puppy's ears were full of ear mites
when I purchased her, so much so that the vet had to use a
forceps to remove chunks of mites. I paid over $1,000.00 for
this puppy. The puppy came with a 2 year warranty, but the
warranty did not cover hypoglycemia. At the vet visit at 15
weeks old, I asked the vet (recommended by the breeder) how long
I needed to continue with the Maxi-cal puppy food and Nutri-cal,
at which time the vet stated that at her age she should not
require either, I also spoke with my prior vet and she stated
she suspected a "less than healthy puppy". I contacted the
breeder on the puppy's death and in conversation she stated she
suspected that the puppy had hypoglycemia when she sold it to me
and that was why she wanted me to feed it Maxi-cal puppy food
and give it Nutri-cal 4 times a day. She then said she would
replace the puppy which I was not interested in and later in
conversation she stated she would refund the money and hung up
on me. One week later she sent a certified letter stating she
would neither refund the money nor replace the puppy since I did
not have a "post" done at the time of death. We were heart
broken at this puppy's death. I would not buy another puppy
titled "teacup" and I would definitely not buy from this
breeder.
--James R.
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Hi my name is Bryony and I wanted to write to tell you how much
I agree with your article on Teacup puppies and hopefully you
can use my story to influence others into NOT buying "teacup"
puppies.
My puppy is called Alfie, he was born on 11th April 2009. He is
a Black Rough haired Brussels Griffon.
Alfie's breeder contacted me when she had her litter as she knew
I had been looking for this particular breed of dog for a long
time (they are very hard to find in New Zealand). She told us he
was very tiny and cute and as soon as we saw his photo we fell
in love with him...little did we know just how tiny he was.
We sent her nz$1400 and when he arrived I was in total shock at
how small he was, think the palm of your hand.
His breeder had wanted to send him to us at 8 weeks but we
thought it would be better for him to stay with his mum till he
was 12 weeks, and I'm so glad we did. Imagine how small he would
have been at 8 weeks! We took him straight to the vet, he
weighed under 1kg. He also had a small fontanel (soft spot on
his head), and a heart murmur. From then on it was all downhill.
We adore our wee boy more than anything else on this earth but
we realize what a mistake it was to fall for the "smaller is
cuter". In the first 4 weeks we had to take him to the vet once
a week to be weighed, he could barely eat much and we had to
give him cat milk to fatten him up. His health started to
deteriorate when he was about 3 months. We noticed although he
had easily house trained he was "leaking" wee sometimes. When we
took him to the vet we found he was incontinent. We later found
this was due to a deformed spine which was pressing on his
spinal column and stopping his brain being able to send the
message to his bladder to make him wee. For the rest of his life
we will have to express his bladder for him buy squeezing his
tummy. The same things then happed with his poop, so he now
drops poop around the house without realizing.
Since we loved him so much we decided we could handle this and
for a time it was fairly easy, it took some getting used to but
Hey at least we didnt have to worry about him weeing round
someones house! We could decide when he did a wee.
About 3 months in, Alfie's willy started to hang out of
its sheath all the time...back to the vet who decided to stitch
it in to stop it getting an infection (it had come out due to
the nerves again being pressed buy his spine making his brain
unable to get the messages through to hold his willy in). He was
on Antibiotics and painkillers. A week later I came home and the
house was covered in blood...with no obvious wounds I took him
straight to the vet and our worst fears were confirmed, his
willy had a bad infection and to stop him from getting sick the
vet had to amputate his little willy. (Quite literally a sex
change operation!). A month later he was allowed home...back on
antibiotics and painkillers. ..bearing in mind how tiny he is
now 1.2kg but losing weight back to 1kg, this was very bad for
his tiny liver to process.
About another 3 months later he started sleeping alot and seemed
to have a swollen tummy...off to the vet again and he had a
bladder infection, back on antibiotics and painkillers. By now
he had cost us over $4000 in vet bills and the vet said he just
could not handle anymore drugs...if he got another bladder
infection that would be the end.
He now weighs 1.3kg and won't grow anymore. He doesn't eat
unless we hand feed him, he has to eat special food to keep his
weight up and still needs monthly check ups at the vet. We still
express his bladder meaning he can never be left alone in case
he develops a bladder infection, we had to have a dog sitter
specially trained just so we could work. He has to be expressed
every 2 hours. We are hoping this is the end of his health
problems but we only look forward to every new month we have
with him. Alfie will never have a full life expectancy due to
all his health problems although he is a very happy and
resilient dog. We have taken him to many different specialist
vets and to professors at Massey university and all his spine
problems come from being so tiny...he effectively has dwarfism.
If we had known anything about tiny dogs we would never have got
him as much as we love him it is unbearable for us to see him so
unhealthy and know we wont have long with him. I try as much as
I can to tell as many people as possible the dangers of having a
"teacup" sized dog as he does get alot of attention on his very
short walks! I hope you can spread the word as much as possible
and if my story can help in any way I am glad to share it.
--Bryony
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