Teacup Maltese

We have two teacup-sized Maltese puppies at the moment, Cody and Callie, and they are on the teacup Maltese for sale page. Before you go there, read this page. It explains what the word teacup does and does not mean, because a kennel that has bred AKC champion Maltese since 1992 owes you the truth about it, and the truth is more useful to you than the sales pitch.

There is no teacup breed, and no teacup size in the standard

The American Kennel Club recognises one Maltese. Its standard asks for a dog under seven pounds, with four to six preferred, and has no category below that. "Teacup", "micro", "mini" and "pocket" are not sizes the breed club or the registry recognise; they are words people use for the smallest Maltese. A teacup Maltese is registered, if it is registered at all, as a Maltese. Ours are.

What we mean when we call a puppy a teacup

The smallest puppies from a normal litter, out of normal-sized, health tested parents, that are clearly going to mature at the small end of the breed. That is what Cody and Callie are: the two little ones from a litter whose parents passed all four of the tests this breed needs. They are not the product of breeding runts to runts, they were not starved to stay small, and they will not leave here before twelve weeks, when they are eating properly and have the reserves to cope with a new home. We will tell you honestly what we expect each to weigh grown, and we will not promise an ounce less than we believe.

What a lot of other people mean by it

A premium price for a word. Sometimes an ordinary four pound Maltese with "teacup" written in front of its name. Sometimes a puppy sent home at six or seven weeks, when every puppy looks tiny, so that the buyer finds out the real size later. And sometimes a genuinely undersized puppy, bred from the smallest and weakest of each generation, or underfed, or simply unwell, with the problem sold as a feature.

Why the way a small puppy is produced matters

A Maltese bred deliberately far below breed size lives closer to the edge. Low blood sugar can collapse a tiny puppy after a missed meal. The bones are finer and a fall from a sofa is a fracture. The skull may not close. Teeth crowd and come out early. Liver shunt, the condition we bile acid test every parent for, shows up most often in the small, slow, poor-doing puppy that a teacup mill calls its best stock. A small puppy from sound parents, raised slowly and sent home at the right age, carries none of that baggage. The word on the advertisement tells you nothing; the parents' test results and the puppy's age at leaving tell you everything.

What the small size costs you, and does not

Here, nothing extra. A teacup-sized puppy from us is the same $600 as any other puppy, because the size is a fact about the puppy and not a reason to charge for it. Elsewhere teacup pricing runs well above the price of the same breed without the label, and the premium buys the label. The price page explains how Maltese prices are built.

Living with a very small Maltese

A small Maltese is a wonderful companion and a slightly more careful one to keep. It needs food available at all times as a puppy and the low blood sugar rule memorised. It should be lifted on and off furniture rather than allowed to jump. It should never be left outside alone, because hawks and owls take dogs this size. Children need to be shown how to hold it, sitting on the floor. In return it travels anywhere, in the cabin of an aircraft or the crook of an arm, and lives comfortably in the smallest home.

Questions to ask anyone selling a teacup

What do the parents weigh, and may I see them? Which health tests were run on both, by name? How old will the puppy be when it leaves? What does the breeder expect it to weigh grown, and will they put that in writing as an honest estimate rather than a guarantee? What happens if I cannot keep the dog? Our answers are on the for sale page, with the two puppies, and Angie will answer anything else on (856) 394-0451 or at divinemaltaol.gmail.com@gmail.com.