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Chihuahua Puppy Food Guidelines: Nurturing Your Tiny Companion
Welcoming a Chihuahua puppy into your life is an exciting experience. These pint-sized pups may be small in stature, but they have big personalities and even bigger appetites. Proper nutrition is crucial during the puppy stage to ensure your Chihuahua grows into a healthy, happy adult. In this blog post, we will explore essential Chihuahua puppy food guidelines to help you give your furry friend the best start in life.
Check out our homemade puppy food recipe here.
When our puppies first go home, we recommend access to food and fresh water 24/7 to prevent hypoglycemia. Small Chihuahuas need to be fed smaller meals multiple times a day. We highly recommend feeding your dog a natural diet of raw meat, fruits, veggies, and supplements or vet approved home-cooked recipes by Doctor Judy Morgan, or ALL Provide dog food, or options like Primal or Honest Kitchen. These diets will help preserve teeth, support their immune system, and promote overall health.
Feeding raw or gently cooked or homemade vet approved balanced home-cooked recipes are healthier options for your babies then kibble as most common health issues in dogs such as thyroid, dental, liver and kidney issues as well as dander, itching, shedding, and poop eating habits some dogs get are largely due to the unhealthy, unnatural diets that pets are fed. Some great choices for healthy added supplements to your dog's diet are raw organic eggs, scrambled eggs, turmeric, probiotics, organic coconut oil, food grade diatomaceous earth, goat kefir, Primal Goats milk , homemade bone broth and whole fat greek yogurt. Spinach, kale, carrots, green beans, pumpkin, dandelion greens, and blueberries are also great choices.
It’s a good idea to rotate protein sources if feeding homemade recipe. Examples of this would be one week you can use turkey, one week beef, and another week chicken, or fish.
If your choice is to go with kibble, we suggest 4Health, Farmina, and Fromms. These are free of corn, wheat, soy, by-products, BHT preservatives, and dyes - ingredients that signify inferior quality and that will shorten your pets life, degrade their health and can even cause serious allergic reactions in pets.
However, we do recommend you supplement the kibble with toppers like Primal, or a vet-approved home cooked recipe, as strictly feeding kibble can cause health issues due to the high carbohydrate content in most kibbles break down into sugar that can lead to health issues.
Dental health is also critical for long term wellness. Dental problems eventually can lead to heart damage. So dental care is essential to good health. We highly recommend giving real bones never cooked which you can find available at your local butcher. They will keep your dog's teeth clean and provide much needed oral-stimulation. Raw bones, dried poultry feet, cows ears and cow hooves are all good options depending on their needs. Only give treats with strict supervision at all times.
Some Education on Vaccinations
Most pet dogs are heavily over vaccinated. We follow a very limited vaccine protocol with our dogs. Small dogs suffer higher rates of vaccine related injury and death if the vet does not adjust the dose by weight since most vets give a chihuahua and great Dane the same dose which is one cc. Vaccines contain many harmful heavy metals and toxins. Long term effects of vaccines are often seen in the form of behavioral issues as well as physical maladies such as organ failure, anaphylaxis, immune disorders, and even death.
We follow a conservative vaccine schedule of core necessary vaccines per Doctor Jean Dodds and recommend following partial dosing of rabies vaccinations per Doctor John Robbs . I have included both of those pictures of recommendations. After core vaccines we recommend you do a titer test which most holistic vets will perform to prevent over vaccination.
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Detoxing After Vaccinations
Vaccinations destroy gut health. The health of the gut impacts brain and immune system function. It is critically important to detox after vaccination to help remove toxins and rebuild gut health. There are several ways to help your dog detox from vaccines – they’ll help rid his body of unwanted chemicals and side effects, but they won’t interfere with the vaccines themselves. You’ll want to try these as soon as your dog is vaccinated (don’t wait for symptoms to appear, start the detox right away).
Vaccines can disrupt the delicate balance of bacteria in the gut – this community of bacteria helps your dog manufacture and absorb vitamins and it’s the core of your dog’s immune system. Adding pre and probiotics will help restore the delicate balance of bacteria in the gut. You can buy a pre-made prebiotic/probiotic blend or you can give your dog Goat kefir, or raw Goats milk or whole fat Greek yogurt as good choices for probiotics. For detoxing after Vaccinations we recommend using alcohol free milk thistle liquid found on Amazon https://a.co/d/i2nQUsm
Hypoglycemia
One of the highest causes of death in toy breed puppies is hypoglycemia. Hypoglycemia or low blood sugar is a common problem in small breed puppies. Young animals in general do not have the energy stores yet developed that adults have, allowing them to maintain an adequate blood glucose (BG) in times of fasting or stress. Small breed puppies are at an even greater disadvantage because they have a relatively higher metabolic rate and energy requirement per unit body mass than larger breed puppies.
Small breed puppies may also be more likely to suffer from hypothermia (decreased body temperature) for a similar reason, which can then lead to decreased food intake, decreased gastro-intestinal utilization of food and hypoglycemia. Hypoglycemia in young patients can also be caused by an underlying portosystemic shunt (abnormal blood vessel around the liver).
Clinical signs of hypoglycemia include weakness, lethargy, poor appetite, altered mentation, twitching, tremoring, seizures and coma. If left untreated, hypoglycemia will be fatal. If an owner suspects hypoglycemia, they can help to increase blood sugar by rubbing Karo syrup on the gums. Care must be taken not to administer too much or to get it in the back of the throat, causing aspiration or obstruction of the airway. It is most important to get your puppy to a veterinarian as quickly as possible.
Treatment at the vet includes initial IV dextrose boluses, warming to a normal body temperature, IV fluids with a constant rate infusion or dextrose and other supportive treatments. Full bloodwork will usually be recommended as well. If caught relatively early, the prognosis for a hypoglycemic animal is good. If presented after seizing for a prolonged period or comatose, the prognosis worsens. A hypoglycemic puppy is always an emergency situation. The key is prevention by ensuring that your is consuming frequent small meals and staying warm.
Check out our veterinary-approved homemade dog food recipe here.
If you have questions about your puppy’s food, please don’t hesitate to send us an email: isabellachristyschihuahuas@gmail.com.