Lady is 5.5 pounds and Prince is 3.5 pounds. Lady is very sturdy looking and Prince although very broad shoulders is much more delicate. Mine are retired breeding dogs. I was told typically bigger females are often used to breed for safety of the mom and pups. I love them both. It is funny how much bigger Lady looks than Prince and it is only a 2 pound difference. Two pounds is a lot on a small dog. When I got Lady she was about 6.5 pounds and pudgy but with a controlled diet and exercise she has trimmed down beautifully.....geee same things that works for humans works for dogs .

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We were out with Harley the other day and had several people ask if he was fully grown and marvel at how tiny he is.....he is nearly 5 and a half pounds! Not tiny at all, a perfectly normal sized Chi, who is actually approaching the top end of the size required by the breed standard. People are just not used to seeing tiny dogs.
An acquaintance who has just got a Chi puppy was boasting that he was going to be a maximum of 3 and half pounds fully grown. Even as a 9 week old puppy, he was over a kilo and had bigger paws than Harley. She was quite offended when I told he was going to be much bigger than 3 lbs. There is a strange bias in pet Chis that smaller is somehow better. Often you see litters priced according to size, with the tiniest having the largest price tag.
You definitely can't guess weight by appearance though. My new girl Mouse is tiny, very delicately built, spindly legs, no muscle tone, about 6 inches tall, her neck is less than 7 inches. (I haven't measured her properly yet) Far, far smaller than Bambi was, and she was 4 and a half pounds lean and fit. I was totally gobsmacked (in a good way!) when the vet told me she weighs 4lb 3oz. She must have heavy bones.

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I haven't read this whole thread yet but just wanted to say that out of my 3 chihuahuas, My smallest puppy (Spice) ended up the biggest adult. I know Boo is not fully grown but he is still smaller than she was at his age and she was tiny as a puppy, she fit in the palm of our hands at 9 weeks! She has grown really fast and bigger than the Sugar now even though Sugar was a bigger pup.

Spice had big parents (5-6lbs) where as Sugars parents were both in the range of 2-4lbs, so parent size can be a big indicator of size.

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the boy in my sig is the biggest in his litter he's now 4lbs 10oz and had the smallest birth weight of the litter, his two sisters we the same weight as each other at birth and Emmie is now 2lbs 14oz and Saffie is 4lbs 1oz at nearly 15 months

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www.teclo.co.uk

Thank you!! I just love to see Chi's with hats or hoods on. They look so darn cute!

Yeah, I totally understand what you are saying. Pics can make our Chi's look bigger. I wouldn't worry about it, though. Chi's are precious no matter their size.

Here are some more examples of how angles, how close to the lens, etc can change the way the eye views size.

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If you aren't part of the solution, you're part of the problem.

This is a perfect description of Jazz and Tango. They both weigh about 3.5 lbs, but they measure differently. My roommate says Jazz looks like a gazelle, whereas Tango's built like a bulldog. Jazz is lean, very fine boned and dainty looking, like a little ballerina. Tango is thick chested and squat. Jazz is taller and longer than Tango, Tango is wider and shorter than Jazz. But they both weigh within a couple ounces of each other.

By the time they were a year old, both Jazz and Tango had reached their adult height and length, but they continued to gain weight and fill out for the next year until they fully matured physically. Tango became barrel chested and thicker all over, whereas Jazz's continued growth was less noticeable, her girth expanded giving her a somewhat thicker chest area, plus she just filled out a little bit everywhere and stopped looking anorexic.

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Ruby is ADORABLE!

I agree with T, regarding camera angles, etc. I'm constantly zooming or taking
close ups of Bella, otherwise she looks too tiny to properly see and enjoy, hehe.

By the way T, I love those pictures, you wook so pwetty!

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Thank you so much, LS!! I almost didn't post that pic where you can see my face. I had the flu in that pic. I took it for "my honey" and sent it via text while he was working. Thought maybe the no smile/I feel like crap look might prompt him to hurry and finish the job they were on.

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If you aren't part of the solution, you're part of the problem.