said by santy:Jo, is Manny a YorkiePoo?
Santy, he's a purebred Yorkie, and I rescued him from a horrific living situation when he was about 11-12 weeks old (per my vet). It was a long haul to get him housebroken (two years), and getting him to eat was another whole story too. He now goes poopy in the grass up by the road, then runs down the driveway for a big hug.
He was also the worst and most finicky eater I've ever had to deal with; he would stop eating with no warning. Can't tell you how many times I had to haul him off to the vet for yet another round of steroids and Vitamin B-Complex injections; it was the only thing that would kickstart him into eating again -- and it had everything to do with how he started out in life. Finding a food that he would eat was an unending battle that went on for close to three years; believe me when I say I've paid for every dog food that they sell in Petsmart, to try and get him to eat! There was a food demo one weekend at Petsmart, and I had Manny with me that day. I was talking to a rep, and she guaranteed me that he would eat their dog food (can't remember the name of it right now...); she had a sample there, and amazingly, he scarfed it down! So I bought a bag home, and he ate it for several weeks and then started to slow down on eating again. In the meantime, I changed Inky, Dusty, and Missey over to a turkey/barley based food, due to Inky blowing out on yet another round of allergies. I was filling food bowls one evening, and Manny jumped into the storage bucket and started to eat their food! He's never stopped eating since that time. Being as how he's little, and is a slow eater (one kibble at a time), he sits next to me on the dog couch and eats there, so that the rest of the h(d)ogs in this house can't steal his food. It took a year for him to finally fill out and get up to his proper weight, but I've never looked back since he took off eating. He gets dry food in the morning, and a teaspoon of wet food with his kibble at night; it can take him up to 30 minutes to eat each time, but most of the time it's usually cleaned up in 10 minutes or less. He also eats the same amount of food that Dusty and Inky both eat; my vet told me that Yorkies have an extremely high metabolism and it takes alot of food to keep them going. That was a classic understatement, if ever there was one!
Oh, yeah... Big dog syndrome... Oh, yeah. He has it, alright; poor Chance has been nailed by Manny on more than one occasion! Manny will bite Chance's front legs if he gets too close, and Chance (not the brightest bulb...) has finally figured out that he has to be careful around Manny. And whenever my neighbor walks his crew of dogs, all of them big dogs except the Doxie, Manny will stand at the top of the driveway and bark at them! He is smart enough to stay put though, a good thing, since my neighbor has an aggressive Pit Bull that is an accident waiting to happen. (She's already put him through hand surgery.) Manny may be small, but he is mighty!!!
He's a happy boy now, healthy, and eats well, so that's all I care about.