Very tiny members of the chihuahua breed are often referred to as “teacup” Chihuahuas or sometimes as “toy” Chihuahuas, but those are marketing ploys rather than actual varieties. Be wary of breeders who use these terms. What they are doing is advertising what is essentially the runt of the litter as something special or valuable, says Micki Giroux, a Chihuahua breeder from Panama City Beach, Florida.
What you may get instead is a dog with health problems and a shorter life span. The Chihuahua Club of America (CCA) does not categorize the Chihuahua by size. The Chihuahua itself is a member of the Toy Group, but there’s no such thing as a toy Chihuahua or a teacup Chihuahua. Neither term is mentioned in the chihuahua breed standard.
According to the CCA, just as humans differ in height, weight and other physical attributes, so do individual Chihuahuas. They are male or female and long coated or smooth, bu that’s as far as their descriptions go.
The CCA is concerned that labels, such as teacup, pocket-size, tiny toy or miniature, may be used to persuade buyers that puppies described with these terms are more valuable, but they are not. Extremely small Chihuahuas are adorable and can be perfectly healthy, but be aware that they may require extra care to keep them safe.
Source: Kim C. Thornton,
Chihuahuas, Volume 8 Second Edition
Do you have a small chihuahua that was sold to you under the title of “teacup” or “pocket-size?” What is your opinion on the teacup chihuahua marketing scam? We want to know. Perhaps we can prevent others from being scammed. Post your comments below.
3 responses so far ↓
1 marlene sandford // Feb 27, 2008 at 10:41 pm
Is there really such a thing as the tea cup?
I think that I can talk from the voice of experience. The answer is yes. But I must caution you that not all tea cup
sized toy dogs in any toy breed are created equal. Let’s look at a litter of four puppies, they are born pretty much the same size at birth. About two weeks down the road you notice that one is just not getting as big as the rest of It’s litter mates but it seems to be the one that’s always chowing down. It’s very healthy, very strong and always seems to be the alpha pup of the litter.
If you’ve been breeding as long as myself, you know right away that you have a dwarf, this is not a puppy that suffers from a condition known as Intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR),abnormal placentation meaning that
the placenta did not grow the way it should have thus the puppy had a limitation of growth potential in the womb. The causes of both can be intrinsic or environmental. In layman’s term they are called the runt.
These puppies can stay very small in the first five months of their lives, but later can reach the six pound standard for the breed.
I personally do not help a runt to survive. If it makes it on it’s own I’m always grateful for the blessing. But if it should go the other way I know in my heart that the pup just didn’t have what it takes to thrive and survive.
I myself like to call any dwarf chi babies micro tea cups and that I can most certainly say that it will stay in the two pound range. Otherwise I sell what many breeders call tea cups as toys. Yes this might be cutting myself short, but money shouldn’t be the deciding factor when
it comes to the reputation of a good and honest breeder.
AKC is a registry for dogs they are not breeders of Chihuahuas or any other toy breed and that is the reason they don’t why they don’t see the what breeder see….the land of the littes is alive and well. Just ask Dorothy
2 WHAT!?! // Mar 18, 2008 at 5:54 am
“Yes this might be cutting myself short, but money shouldn’t be the deciding factor when
it comes to the reputation of a good and honest breeder.”
WHAT!?!? Did you really say that? I would never buy a toy dog from a breeder who adverted it as a ‘teacup’ or ‘toy’. It is already a toy. Then those same breeders go and mate two runts trying to achieve ‘teacup’ puppies. If it indeed came down to the reputation of a good and honest breeder, you would just be selling chihuahuas and not your made-up ‘micro tea cups’. You are some ‘authority’? You are one breeder and you are better than the AKC? Whatever.
3 Marlene Sandford // Jul 19, 2008 at 11:09 pm
Whatever!….Please AKC is not an authority on breeding dogs……even cockroach’s come in different sizes….No tea cups?… tell that to my Nacho man, who is 1 lb 3oz at 6 m0s. Or my Chico man weighting in a 2lb at 9mos. Both of who were not runts. Yes,…. leave it up to the breeders of the world to call it on the size, after all they are the authority.
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