Breeding / papers

Question
I have a yorkie who is slightly over 4lbs. I bought her as a puppy planning on breeding her, but was very nieve in thinking that when someone says papered that it automatically meant AKC. I bought her and came back for the papers and found out they are ACA. I have done some research and heard good and bad about the ACA and am not sure which to beleive. I would still like to breed her and the male i have chosen is 2.5 lbs. and AKC. The puppies would not be registerable for AKC but if the male is double registered with both kennel clubs (which i told the owner of the male i would pay for) then the puppies could be registered with ACA. Is it worth it? Also on the medical end of it, i have heard about many successful births with small females as long as the male is much smaller. On the otherhand i am aware things could go wrong. This is a member of my family and i would be devastated if anything happened to her. in your experience, has it been worth it for people who have tried to breed 'teacups'. Also she is turning a year next month and still has not had her first heat, is this normal?

Answer
Savannah,

There are people who have bred 4 pound Yorkies successfully but that is the exception not the rule. Over the years I have known many breeders and none of them would breed a female smaller than 5 pounds.  There were many reasons for this but the main reason is that it is not economical.  Breeding is a business.  The object is to make money.  It is therefore, a good idea to breed females that you know will produce the most puppies with the least amount of problems.  Emergency c-sections are expensive, and the mother or puppies or both can die during this procedure.  Business wise if you pay a stud fee, and then have to have a c-section and loose the mother and puppies you are out of a lot of money.

Now if you look at the personal side of it, the trauma of watching your female go through a c-section and possibly loosing her is something that you do not want to experience. My Yorkies have always been part of our family.  Even if you take all the precautions necessary there are still times that a c-section has to be done.  It is one of the realities of being a breeder but that doesn't make it any easier to go through.  I was fortunate and never lost a female during a c-section.  I have however, lost puppies.  There was a time that one of my females had to have an emergency c-section on a Sunday at 5:00 in the morning.  There was no one there except the vet and myself.  I had to help him with the c-section.  When he started cutting my female open I got real hot all of a sudden and all the blood rushed to my head.  I thought I was going to throw up and pass out all at the same time.

I had to excuse myself and run outside into the cold night air to get myself under control.  I did go back and finish helping but it was a very scary experience.  I am not generally a queasy person and the sight of blood etc. does not bother me.  I guess it was the whole thing together that just overwhelmed me.  During that c-section my female had two puppies and both were born dead.  The vet told me what to do and while he worked on my female he instructed me on what to do to revive the puppies.  We were able to save both puppies and my female was fine.  That is not always the case.  

I also had a female that I kept to breed who was supposed to be bigger then she was.  She ended up being only 4 and a half pounds.  I bred her twice with a male that was 2.5 pounds.  Both times it was a disaster.  After that I never bred her again.  I had her spayed.  My reasons were not business related but rather not wanting to put my female or myself through the stress.  It simply was not worth it.

Since your female is not AKC registered and is to small to breed you may want to use your stud to breed.  You could breed with a female and then instead of getting a stud fee you could get pic of the litter.  Breed him with an AKC registered female that is between 6 and 7 pounds and you should get a female that is big enough to breed.  Do not breed him to a female that is smaller than 6 pounds because you could get a female that is to small to breed.  

As far as her going into heat, the smaller females usually go longer between heats than the larger ones.  The first time they go into heat can range anywhere from six months to 18 months so the fact that she has not gone into yet is not unusual.

What it comes down to is that you are the only person who can make this decision.  You are doing the right thing by gathering as much information as you can before making your decision.  Good Luck in whatever you decide.