For the nutritionists on the forum: my son and daughter-in-law just got a 10 1/2 week old Maltese puppy. I was successful in talking him into the raw diet. The breeder fed raw and kibble mix, so wasn't too hard to get him to drop the kibble. Only problem is the amount of supplements to give, as the puppy only eats about 1 to 2 teaspoons of food per meal. The instructions on all supplements for small dogs seems to be too much (ie: 1/8 tsp kelp, 1/4 tsp alfalfa, 1/8 tsp Vit C, 1/2 pump salmon oil, 200 units vit E). What are your thoughts on this? Are these daily amounts too much for a 2 lb puppy?

A side note: My son doesn't want to feed the puppy whole chicken bones - he's leary of the pup biting off bigger chunks of bone than she can safely swallow, so he'll be getting Omaspride which has the bones ground in with the meat.

Another side note: my son was told to put a halti on the pup for training, I told him not to, just use a flat collar. Any thoughts?

I have a Chihuahua who is 6lbs, and I know what you mean about dosages. I ordered a powdered mix of one; I'll try to find where I got it. That way, you could just give him/her a measured amount of ONE powder, instead of trying to break pills or having to go find all those powders separately. The Honest Kitchen has one called Invigor that's a good immune support, and they also have a coat supplement called Sparkle, as well as Perfect Form, for digestion. All easy to serve, IMO. Sprinkle on dry food or mix in w/wet THK or raw. Not terribly expensive, either.

As far as bones, my Chi does fine with chicken wings. He's never had any problems at all, and he's missing some teeth due to his penchant for taking on dogs much larger...so I'd say wings should eventually be fine, but I'd wait until the pup is a little more mature and less likely to want to scarf down everything in sight. Wings are very flexible; I think a lot of people don't realize how soft they really are, and have visions of a hard piece of sharp bone being bitten off. You could also go the beef soupbone route; no way a Maltese is gonna break off a dangerous chunk off one of those, and there's good meat and cartilage on those too.

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.....Another side note: my son was told to put a halti on the pup for training, I told him not to, just use a flat collar. Any thoughts?

Good advice! <img src="http://www.leerburg.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

Forgot to address the Halti thing- NO. NO. NO. Good call, Sandy.

I have not had a huge issue with leash manners, but if a flat collar isn't sufficient, consider a harness for the sake of the dog's trachea. Chihuahuas are prone to tracheal collapse, but any tiny dog can have this issue, so I always walk with a shoulder harness as opposed to a collar of any kind.

Thanks Jenni, for mentioning THK supplements. Am sending the link to my son. If you can let me know about the powdered mix you mentioned as well, that would be great. Do you give salmon oil as well? If so, how much?

Great advice about the soup bones, at least that would keep the pup's teeth clean.

I read up on halti's here on the forum and know that Ed does not agree with using them for training. For the life of me, I can't see putting a halti on a Maltese puppy. I met her yesterday, and even if she wasn't the most docile pup I've ever seen and would never need a halti, she still should never have one. She's much too small. It's not like she's hard to control. He was told to use a halti by a Maltese owner who in turn was told to use one by a Petsmart trainer <img src="http://www.leerburg.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad.gif" alt="" />. So Jenni, do you recommend a harness instead of a flat collar for training? After meeting her I think a harness would be very sufficient. It would be awful if her neck was hurt by a flat collar. I'm sure you know how small she is, but I can't stress enough that she is teeny, tiny, itsy bitsy, ball of fluff that fits in 2 hands!

I do give wild salmon oil, 1 tsp. for 20lbs, so maybe 1/4 tsp? The powder is Mega C-plus, through Wendel Bellfield's site. I got it for a sick cat, then started adding it to my chi's food b/c of the vit c/connective tissue relationship. He had spinal surgery in March.

I'd keep her on a harness, just b/c she's sooo small; it's very hard to correct a dog that size w/out going overboard. Or, at least it is for me b/c of the HUGE size difference of my dogs. Can't hurt, at any rate.

Thanks again, Jenni, I forwarded all your info to my son, along with links. Appreciate your help!