Understanding Food Needs

Correct feeding is very important for your dog. A Chihuahua can become overweight if care is not taken regarding their diet.   Overweight dogs can have health troubles.  Extra weight can cause diabetes, and damage to joints.

Small breeds burn calories faster than larger breeds. As they grow older, their needs change for dog food and/or more exercise.

A Chihuahua's digestive tract is designed to process large quantities of proteins. You may need to do a little experimenting to see what type of dog food your Chihuahua enjoys best, Also many foods we love are poison to a canine.

What to Feed Your Chihuahua 

As you know, a Chihuahua  is a very small and delicate dog, his digestive system is small and sensitive. It is very important to never buy the cheap dog food that you find in the super market. While it will certainly save you some money, it will affect the healthy of your Chi now and in the future.  Can you imagine if someone fed you junk food all day, every day?   The food must be high quality; this will provide the proper amount of calories, vitamins, protein and more.  If not, bad dog food can make your Chihuahua over weight and unhealthy.  Because the Chihuahua is the smallest dog possible, thier digestive system can not handle foods that a larger breed can.  Therefore, you will want to make sure that you choose a well-known brand that is specially formulated for small toy breeds. 

Wet or Dry? 

It is suggested to feed your Chihuahua mostly dry dog food with a bit of wet dog food mixed into the menu.  Eating only wet dog food may affect the bowels. Because a dog can quickly come to love wet dog food, you will not want to feed them only wet even for a day or two; they will put up a big fuss if you try to switch them over.

If you are currently feeding your Chihuahua only wet dog food and your dog is having very runny bowel movements, you should plan a slow switch over to dry food.  You can begin by providing a mixture of 50% dry and 50% wet.  Be sure to mix well, so that the wet food covers the dry nuggets. As time goes on, you can add less and less of the wet, ending up with a balanced diet of 80% dry dog food and 20% wet dog food.

How Much?

Portion control is a must, a dog must eat enough to be healthy and not too much so they become overweight. The amount of dog food and the feeding times will vary depending on the age of your dog and activity level.  Only leave out the dog food for 30 minutes.   If your dog doesn’t eat it in that time, put it away. 

• Growing puppies need about ½  to 1 ounce of dry, premium dog food per pound of body weight every day. This is distributed throughout 3 to 4 meals, depending on the age of the puppy.
• Adult dogs need less: ¼  to 1/2 ounce of dry dog food per pound of body weight every day. Adult dogs can usually eat just one meal per day.
• In addition to dry dog food, a small amount of canned dog food can be added. If you are using quality dry and canned food, a good ratio is 2/3 dry and 1/3 canned. Dog supplements are helpful, they can make the coat shiny and keep the body nutritionally balanced.   Older dogs definitely need dog supplements to help with their joints and many other health issues.

What is Poison to Your Dog

Many people already know that chocolate is poisonous to a dog; however there are a  lot of other foods as well.  It is never recommended to feed a Chihuahua table food; some may make him very ill.

Beside chocolate the following foods can make your dog very sick:

• Nuts
• Onions
• The seeds of any fruit
  
• Raisins
  
• Coffee or any substance containing high levels of caffeine
  

Aside from some human food, plants and grasses can be very toxic to a Chihuahua.  To make sure of your dog’s safety, never allow him to chew on any type of grass.  And of course, such items and fluids as anti-freeze, hair coloring, detergents, etc would be harmful to a Chihuahua or any dog.

Picky Eaters

Feeding your Chihuahua a high quality dog food at pre-set times during the day is the best way to ensure your dog is properly fed.  It is suggested to search for several types of dog foods so that you have a variety of flavors and see which ones your dog loves the best.  Some Chihuahuas will be very stubborn about the food that they eat; it might sound wonderful to you, "Bacon & Cheese Double Dipped Beef with Gravy" but your dog may not want to go near it! 

You will just need to experiment a bit.  Do not buy large quantities of dog food until you have discovered the flavor or flavors that makes your dog content.  Buy many flavors in small amounts and test to see what makes your dog run to dinner!  As long as a dog food is healthy and formulated for small breeds, there is nothing wrong with your Chihuahua eating only 1 certain flavor.  If that particular food is lacking a bit in a certain vitamin, provide a supplement.