Hi everyone!!  My name is Ashlee.  We bought Lucy yesterday, she is 9 weeks old.  I have never had a small dog before (usually have lab mixes) so I have a few questions! (here are a couple pics!)  I am pretty sure she has worms so we went to the vet this morning to get some wormer...  She is about 3 lbs.

We got Eukanuba Small breed puppy food... is that any good??  A friend of mine feeds this to her Chihuahuas and she had a $5 off coupon that expired today so I got a 6 lb bag for a bit over $7.. thought we could give it a try. How much should she be eating?? The bag says 1 cup but I gave her 1/2 cup yesterday afternoon and she still hasn't eaten all of it....

Also what kind of chew toys to you all recommend??  She chews on everything!!  We are working on teaching her what she can and can't chew on so I wanted to get her some toys that are just for her but I have no clue what is OK...??   Hopefully that question doesn't sound as stupid to you all as I think it does.  LoL  

Thanks ladies!!  

Hi, Ashlee!  Welcome to RT.com!  This is a great place for rattie info.  Your little Lucy is just adorable!  What a cute cakes!  She's gonna wear you out for 6 mos. to a year, but when she gets through the puppy stage, your patience with her will be well rewarded.  You'll find she is the most affectionate, loyal dog in the world! 

She'll be chewing for some time to come, and ratties can be pretty persistent about it.  We used squeaky toys, stuffed animals, and rubber toys pretty exclusively the first year.  

Many will disagree, but we found the ONLY thing that would deter Button from chewing on our fingers and toes was to give her the teensy weensy 5" rawhide twist sticks.   Her razor-sharp little teeth when she wanted attention late night were unbearable.  Be aware that rawhides can pose a potential choking/blockage issue, but we have not had any problem with the real tiny 5" ones.  We never gave he one unattended, however.   Button demanded a great deal of attention & correcting her when she clawed at our feet/legs for attention just didn't work!  So our vet recommended squirting her with a little squirt gun to stop the clawing/biting at us.  THAT worked!  Stopped the behavior immediately!  Now she never puts her teeth on a human, not even in play.  She still immediately stops any behavior if we even say "Do I have to get the pistol?"  She instantly runs the other way from whatever she's doing.   LOL

She was also real bad about trying to chew on electric cords, so we had to cover, hide or tape those all down for about 6 months.  Fortunately she never electricuted herself. 

Only other inappropriate thing she ever went for was the edge of my wicker magazine rack.  I sprayed it daily with Bitter Apple and she then left it alone.  That product doesn't work with all dogs, though. 

Hi there Ashlee. Your Lucy is adorable! We will also want pics of your other fur babies and your skin baby. May I ask did you get her from a breeder or pet shop or shelter? I ask only because you seem to have been sent on your way with no info on how to care for your new pup. Seems very irresponsible to me. I feed Yaz Science Diet small bites. Alot of folks on here reccomend against this brand due to skin issues but Yaz has never had any. I can tell you that with a lower quality of food they poop much more frequently and it will be looser. Once we switched Yaz from Purina to Science Diet her poops changed drastically. I also want to add that as far as toys go, you may want to be careful about "stuffy" type toys. I have 3 skin kids and it seemed unrealistic for her to tell the difference between her stuffy and theirs. Kongs and nylabones are GREAT! Definitely deter the inappropriate chewing NOW while she is young. Other than that ENJOY! Yaz is also my first small dog. I will NEVER go back. Hopefully she is around for a long time but I know Rat Terriers are my breed of choice from now on.

Welcome!  As the others have pointed out Eukanuba is a poor quality food.  Check out www.dogfoodproject.com especially the ingredients to avoid section: http://www.dogfoodproject.com/index.php?page=badingredients .  These apply to any breed but keep in mind that ratties are often prone to allergies and corn, wheat and soy are some of the main culprits there.  There are many high quality foods to choose from like Innova, EVO, Canidae, Merrick, Wellness, Natural Balance, Solid Gold, etc.  Educate yourself on good vs bad ingredients and then choose a good food for her...remember to switch her over slowly so her tummy doesn't get upset.  Basically, you want less filler and more good quality meat.

Welcome to the site! Lucy is a very adorable little dog! You won't regret adding her to your family.
   My dog, Sam, has a kong that he's had since he was a puppy that he still chews on. Kongs are wonderful, sturdy toys that usually last a long time. One nifty thing you can do with it is fill it up with treats and let her try to dig it out; that'll keep her preoccupied for a while. I wouldn't recommend any of the fluffy, easy to rip toys, since ratties are very good at tearing such things up.

   I've been looking up a lot on dog nutrition lately (we use Pedigree and before thought it was one of the better dog foods. Then we came to this site and found out what was in it...we're working on switching to a better brand) I agree with the other members here; Eukanuba isn't a very good quality dog food. It contains a lot of grains, the main one being corn. Grains are not good for your dog and many dogs are allergic to grains. Corn is an especially hard grain for dogs to digest and is believed to be the cause of many yeast infections. A lot of the people on here use Innova, which is a very high quality brand. It's hard to find a good dog food; look for a brand that uses no grain and byproducts and contains primarily meat.
One site that someone on here directed me to is dogfoodanalysis.com . You can look up different dog foods by brand name or quality.
Enjoy the site and your new kid! You're going to love it here!

Another good thing to help teething puppies are FROZEN baby carrots!! The cooling numbs the pain and the carrots are good for fiber.

Greetings Ashlee,

Lucy is just a cutie-pa-tootie!

I feed Taste of the Wild Wetlands formula.  It is grain free and by-product free and my dog loves it.  I agree with the others about using a puppy kong for chewing (it looks like a very big baby pacifier). To help my dogs learn what was forbidden I use a "no can" which is an empty pop can with several pennies in it that I shake and say "no" at the same time. It gets their attention, they don't like the sound, and help learn that no means no.

Please post lots of pics!.

Welcome to the site, your baby is too cute. I got my Bailey after she was grown so never saw her as a puppy. Their coloring is similar so I bet Bailey looked like Lucy, well maybe. Bailey has a little more brown on her front legs.

Thanks for the warm welcome everyone!! 

I just got back from the store, we picked up a Nylabone, a Kong and a rope.  She got really excited when she saw the Kong!  LoL   Also found a pet store about 15 minutes from our house that carries the natural balance food.  The breeder we got her from had her on Purina (don't know if I spelled that right) so I was working on switching her to the Eukanuba...  but I guess I will start taking the Eukanuba out and slowly add the NB in. 

Now I just need to figure out what size crate to get her!  We are borrowing a friends' right now but Meijer has their metal crates on sale right now.. The 24" is only $24.99, it comes with a divider... What size crate does everyone recommend??