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Question about Chi size

9K views 84 replies 26 participants last post by  KittyD 
#1 ·
Hi everyone! When I first got Ruby and was posting photos of her teeny-tiny, chubby-puppy self all over Facebook a lot of people started saying she didn't look like a purebred, one of the reasons being that she was too big.
View attachment 9241
(That's her and my dad when she was 7 weeks old). She does seem to photograph huge though, does anyone else find that happens with their chi's?

I think a lot of people think chi's only come in "teacup" size. So I found this pic online to show people that wasn't the case. View attachment 9249

Now I'm curious as to what sort of weight range each classification would have and where Ruby would fit. At 8 months now, she is 3kg (which I think is about 6.6lb). Also, she has been this weight for the last two or so months, has she stopped growing or will she have another little spurt in the future?


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#4 ·
Frame wise they seem to stop growing around the 7-8 month mark.. but this depends on your lines, They do however continue to bulk up and fill out and gain coat (long coats) until around 18 mos. Visually she probably won't get much bigger, but she may end up weighing more. Weights are funny.. you can have a long lanky Chi that's 2.5 pounds and a tiny little dot who weighs 4-5 pounds, so don't put much value in overall weight vs size. I hope that helps some?
 
#5 ·
In your Dad's , she looks just about the same size Ike did at 7 weeks in my husband's hands. I'll try to find that picture. Ike is only 4 mths and 3 wks old , so I 'll have to wait and see how he turns out. His mother is 5 pounds and father is 4 pounds. Tea cups are usually the runts of the littler and the breeders call them tea cup, to get more money. I think Ruby looks perfect!
 
#7 · (Edited)
Tea cups are usually the runts of the littler and the breeders call them tea cup, to get more money. I think Ruby looks perfect!
Not to split hairs :lol: but not all "teacup" sized dogs (and of course we all know it's not a real breed standard, but a descriptive phrase used by many none the less) are runts, some smaller than usual dogs will have larger birthweights than their litter mates who end up bigger than them! Some dogs are genetically tiny. Very often runts grow to be average sized dogs in the end.

The reality of all this though is yes, many breeders charge more for smaller dogs, and you won't really technically know what you're dealing with size wise until the dog is past 6 mos of age. That's why picking the runt of a litter is usually not a good way to determine the end size of the dog, that Chihuahua chart is pretty whacky too! :D

That is pretty much what I learned by researching and talking to people who owned smaller than average Chihuahua's and of course my own experience with my own dogs.
 
#6 ·
Thanks everyone! I do remember reading somewhere that breeders will call a runt puppy "teacup" an can sell them to people who don't know any better for more money. Dodgy practice, but at least the little runts are going to be loved and looked after unlike in other breeds where I have heard the runts are put down. :(

I think Ruby is perfect too! We've never met another chi though so I was curious as to how she'd measure up. My cousin has a chi-Pom mix that i have seen in photos but not met. She's a few months older than Ruby and about 2kg. She's also curiously the only one of the little that doesn't have the fluffy Pom fur. Until my cousin told me she was half Pom I would have thought she was purebred.


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#13 ·
That would be my guess. Mylo has a very heavy frame...he's well built. He bangs himself and doesn't seem to notice. I think he's just a sturdy pup. Max is an adult though and Mylo is 8 months so he may still grow larger. He could probably do with losing a tiny bit of puppy fat. He's not fat but not ideal either. He does a lot of exercise though so there's probably a lot of muscle in there too.

Of course muscle tone has a lot to do with weight too. As LS will tell you have a dog that hasn't been exercised much they can put on a lot of weight in muscle alone.
 
#30 ·
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.
 
#15 ·
I love the baby-puppy picture of just a handful of dog....so cute !! Rico was from a litter of 7--and they were all sizes. I mean that when they were whelped, there were a couple of tiny ones and at eight weeks some pups were twice the size of others--but all in the range you'd expect for a chi. Rico and a sister pup were about 3 ounce babies and at 8 weeks Rico was almost 2 pounds and baby sister was hardly a pound in weight. It is funny that in one litter you'd get so many colours and sizes.
 
#17 · (Edited)
They really do! it's fascinating.
Really, I know the breed standard calls for between 2-6 pounds, but we've just not met any Chihuahua's in person out and about that are smaller than the described standard, so I think honestly it's not as common to have the smaller sizes, many people say "oh my dogs 3 pounds" guesstimating what size they perceive the dog to be, and that's an interesting phenomena as well because clearly weight does not always correlate to actual size.. :lol:

It's a fun topic for sure! :D
 
#18 ·
In our area we do not see many larger healthy and fit Chis like we have on this board. We have sausage Chis that need to be be sent to LS's Doggie Fitness Boot Camp. It is sad.

We actually get asked what they "are" and if they are babies or people insisting that they are "miniature" or "teacups". They are right in the middle of the standard so in theory they are average. NOT average in our area.
 
#19 ·
Yep! people always assume Bijou is a baby.
And then they ask what he is because we don't really have long coats around here either. :lol: and of course the deer heads are more prevalent as well so that futher confuses people.. we get a lot of "THAT is a Chihuahua" with bewildered looks.. ha ha
 
#21 ·
Your baby will probably be about 7 lbs full grown. At 8 months he should be close to his final frame size, height and length. Maybe a bit more, but nothing significant. Pictures make all our Chi's look bigger. And it depends a lot on what's in the picture, where its located, angle, etc. Anything up close wil appear larger to the eye than a distance. Or you could take 2 dogs the same size, and one be closer to the lens when the pic is taken, and the one closer will look bigger. Or take a small dog, and have a larger one in front, the small one will appear even smaller than it really is. Any object that becomes the focal point, closest to the lens, will look bigger. You can take 5 pics say with pup and adult. If the adult is holding the pup in front of them, the pup appears larger, if the adult is standing in front or over the pup, the pup appears smaller. The simple way to explain is that anything closer to your lens is going to appear bigger. The smaller of the breed standard is not all that common. Larger of the breed standard, and even bigger is more the "norm." Weight and size do not seem to correlate.
 
#23 ·
Oh my gosh, that hat! So adorable! Hahaha

All of that makes perfect sense, but I still find with Ruby she always looks big, no matter what. Every time someone meets her, without fail, they say "oh she's so much smaller then I was expecting! She looks so much bigger in photos." Or something to that effect. Hahaha the breeder sent us a couple of photos of her before we got her and even I did it when we picked her up! LOL


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#29 ·
Thank you!! :daisy: I just love to see Chi's with hats or hoods on. They look so darn cute! :lol:

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. :love5:

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





 
#24 ·
Sizes of Chis vary so much! My 3 are all very similar weight (a bit over 2kg or about 4.5lb) but different builds.

Axle has a stocky body but a tiny head and little stick legs, he looks small compared to his half sister Chloe who is long and lean with more solid legs but they are actually both about 2.2kg. Winston is approx the same weight but about an inch taller in the legs and an inch shorter in body length than Ax and Clo with a big barrel chest so he looks bigger but he isn't really.

They have also matured differently. Ax was his current size and weight at 8 months (he's 1 year and 5 months now), whereas Chloe grew and put on weight up until after her 1st birthday (she's 1 year 3 months). Winnie is now 10 months and looks like he needs to fill out a bit so we will see when he stops growing.
 
#25 ·
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 ;).
 
#26 ·
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.:)
 
#27 ·
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.
 
#31 ·
Ruby is ADORABLE! :love2:

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! :daisy:
 
#32 ·
By the way T, I love those pictures, you wook so pwetty! :daisy:
Thank you so much, LS!! :daisy: 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. :D
 
#33 ·
This is what I love about chis though. The fact that they vary so much in size and colours is what makes them so special. They're much more individual and unique than other breeds. There does seem to be this elitist thing about chis being small though. The small ones are always more expensive and there's a woman who works across the road from me that I've bumped into a few times and she always says that her daughter has a chihuahua and that it's a teacup and is so tiny in that voice that says 'my chihuahua is better than yours'. I really have to bite my lip to not point out thy there is no such thing as a teacup chihuahua and it just means you got them from an unscrupulous or uninformed breeder.

People here don't seem to be that familiar with long haired chihuahuas.
 
#34 ·
YES I've encountered that kind of attitude as well.
You know how I feel about tinies, so many come
with issues, Bella's the perfect example. I adore
her because she's my munchkin, but I would never
support purposely breeding for such tinies. Almost
every time I'm out with her we run into someone to
whom I feel like I have to explain why the so called
"teacup" should not be desired. To me personally,
the 4-6 pound Chi is ideal...funny I ended up with
an 8.5 and a 2.5.
 
#36 ·
Its so interesting reading everyones experiences. My chi is a mix and around 11ish lbs. Everyone here thought she was a purebred and people in my area also think that too. Some people think she's a puppy as well even though she's on the larger size. I guess people don't see small or average sized chis around here. Mine is huge compared to them!
 
#38 ·
The problem with tiny chihuahuas, or tiny dogs of any of the smaller breeds, is the unethical practices surrounding what it takes to aggressively and purposely breed for smaller and smaller sizes.

Ethical breeders will on occasional find themselves with a puppy at the extreme low end of the weight spectrum. It happens, it's a natural occurrence, and mostly when it happens this way, the puppy, while it needs extra care in its infancy, will ultimately be as healthy as its larger siblings. But when unethical breeders shoot for tiny, micro animals, they typically will also ignore the health of the dogs involved. Instead of breeding for overall quality and to forward the breed standard, they focus on size alone and ill-health of the dogs will tend to follow naturally.

A tiny dog of any breed isn't a bad thing. It's the journey that was taken to whelp a dog that small that is often fraught with moral landmines.
 
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