When I came across an article on Quora about the attempts to breed a mix of the Great Dane and tiny ferocious Chihuahua, I was skeptical, like everyone seemed in the comments section. I tried to imagine the feasibility of setting up the big gentle canine with the small Chihuahua, and the image was just too hilarious to fathom.
Just what is a Great Dane Chihuahua mix? The Great Dane Chihuahua mix is part of an ongoing effort to produce a new breed with the desirable characteristics of the Great Dane and the Chihuahua canine breeds.
What you will get is a whole new Designer breed that is slightly smaller in size than your average Great Dane but way bigger than your miniature Chihuahua canine. Its coat does not shed as much as the Dane, and it will live longer than your gentle Dane but is just a few years short of the full life expectancy of the Chihuahua.
While it may seem a highly inconceivable pursuit, the Chi-Dane-Dane makes for quite the terrific furry companion with the best characteristics of the Chihuahua and the Great Dane. There are several reasons you would love this canine mix. If the Chi-Dane-Dane is your desired Designer Breed, read more to understand the health challenges, grooming, and temperament of your Great Mexican Pooch.
What Is A Great Dane Chihuahua Mix?
When considering the miniature size of the Chihuahua and the gigantic Great Dane, the idea of a mix of the two breeds shows up as much of a joke. The question “Can you mix a Chihuahua with a Great Dane?” will tend to raise some eyebrows mainly because of the immense differences in size between the Dane and the Chihuahua and how to get them to mate.
Can A Chihuahua Carry A Great Dane Puppy?
When the attempts were first made to get the Great Dane to mate with the Chihuahua, it was a horrendous feat. The Chihuahua mother was just too small, and the fetus was developing at a much higher pace than the carrying mother.
Both the mother and the fetus died before reaching full term. Other efforts included helping the mother pooch give birth pre-term through cesarean section, and these resulted in the death of the mother and the pup shortly after.
After a series of dismal results, the most feasible and only natural way to obtain the Chi-Dane-Dane is by mating a female Great Dane and a Male Chihuahua. This has proven to be a success thus far.
The whole process is ridiculous, to say the least, but eventually, with some improvisation, the tiny Chihuahua will get to impregnate the huge female Dane. It is not conducted based on the natural instinct of these two variations of the dog species, and a better option is the non-natural method of artificial insemination.
Appearance Of The Great Mexican
The results of this mix will be a smaller version of the Great Dane but a larger Chihuahua with a big head and a physique medium in size. It will fit in nicely in an apartment setting and is easier to walk around with. Some call it the Chi-Dane-Dane, and others opt to call it the Great Mexican. One of its best features is that it doesn’t drool half as much as the Great Dane!
Temperaments Of A Great Dane Chihuahua Mix
The temperament of the Chi-Dane-Dane is a combination of ferocity and gentility. The Chihuahua is a Mexican-originating pup believed to carry foxy blood in its veins. It is known to be highly volatile and ferocious. A Chihuahua’s brain is highly neotenized, which means that its cognitive development is quite incomplete. It ends at the third level and stops for the remainder of its existence.
Temperament Of A Chihuahua
In another sense, a Chihuahua is a perpetual puppy. The Chihuahua is a very playful doggie that is very much of an attention seeker. It behaves much like your typical toddler and will get agitated if left in solitude.
Because it is neotenized, the Chihuahua’s brain stays immature up to the time that your dog reaches life expectancy at the age of 18. If you have this for your furry friend, you will find it very sociable and, therefore, must never be isolated. As your pooch, the Chihuahua requires much mental and physically titillating activities to stay happy.
Characteristics Of The Gentle Giant
On the other hand, the Great Dane, for all its greatness of size, is a very gentle canine. Sometimes known as the German Mastiff or simply the Deutsche Dogge, this breed is originally from Germany. Originally bred to be vicious guard dogs, the present-day Dane is a gentle furry companion. Although the Great Dane is typically difficult to train for obedience, they perform excellently with proper voice, body, and hand gestures to instill respect.
Behavior Of The Great Mexican
The temperament of the Chi-Dane Dane is a mix of these two extreme opposites. You will find your canine buddy gentle enough but vicious enough to provide sufficient protection for you when it is a cross between the Chihuahua and the Great Dane.
Common Health Problems Of A Great Dane Chihuahua Mix
It is estimated that a typical Great Dane will live up to between 7 and 10 years of age, not a very long time when you have developed a heartfelt connection with your furry friend. The Chihuahua, on the other hand, has a lifespan of up to 18 years of age.
The Great Dane Chihuahua mix should have a life expectancy of less than 10 years as it falls in the middle ground of these two dog breeds. You may not live together with both breeds for all of 18 years but the mixed-breed dog will be with you for a while longer than the typical Great Dane.
The very nature of mixing these two breeds means there will be a disruption to the genetic structure of the resultant breed. Where the Great Dane is more adaptable to any weather changes, the Chihuahua is not so tolerant.
The mixed version may be more inclined towards warm weather and so get affected in cold weather. Essentially most of the health problems of the Chi-Dane Dane are carried on from either the Chihuahua or the Great Dane.
Canine Bloat
A combination of diseases from either the Chihuahua or the Great Dane will include gastric torsion, which is also known as canine bloat. Much the same way that we humans get gas or a feeling of bloating does happen in canines.
Sadly, bloating in canines is not so easily overcome and is rather life-threatening. A quick dash to the veterinarian is your one solution when you see your dog’s tummy swelling and several other changes in behavior. Do this immediately, as it may not last the day in that condition.
Obesity
It is common to see dogs overeating, and for a Chihuahua mix, the negative result of being overweight will probably be more obvious due to its reduced size.
Heart Condition
Another disease to watch out for is tracheal collapse which the Chi-Dane-Dane can inherit from its Chihuahua side of parentage. This is a fatal heart condition characterized by an obstruction of the airways in your doggie.
Other Possibly Severe Diseases In The Great Mexican
There are several other inheritable diseases that your designer breed can get, like Tricuspid Valve disease and the deadly cancer known as osteosarcoma.
Osteosarcoma is a bone type of cancer and is a typical Great Dane inherited disease. Your veterinarian will be able to give you a treatment plan once symptoms, like lumps all over the body and anorexia, are confirmed to be caused by cancer.
During the initial stages of the breeding efforts to mix the two breeds, the offspring failed to live up to full term due to the size of the carrying canine. Though the female now being used for breeding is that of the great Dane, certain developmental faculties may fall short so that the puppies will need extra intervention until it is fully grown and adapted to their environment. Without this much care, it may give in to disease from its environment, to which it is not yet fully adaptable.
Do Great Dane Chihuahua Mix Shed? Grooming Tips For The Chi-dane-dane
Grooming Patterns Of The Great Mexican
Grooming your Chi-Dane-Dane is a notch harder than it would be for the Chihuahua or the Dane. Given that this breed is still in its experimental phases means, not much has been documented on the actual characteristics of the breed.
When you consider the Dane canine, you will find that it does shed a lot naturally. It requires more space and would thrive well in warm temperatures, even though it may make it well in cold weather.
Your Chihuahua will not shed much and requires very little coat attention in whatever space you share your furry buddy with. The two types of coats found in Chihuahuas include a smooth and a long fur coat which would need varying grooming practices. Ideally, your Chi-Dane-Dane will be in the best of care when coat care is done at least twice weekly.
Shedding Rate Of The Chi-Dane-Dane
The Chi-Dane-Dane can typically shed every now and then, though not in much the same intensity as the Great Dane. This means that you need to clean up and brush up your pooch with special combs or brushes suitable for its coat.
Natural shedding cannot be stopped, but you can control it through regular maintenance of your doggie’s coat. You need to visit your veterinarian for the ideal comb or brush that will go well with the coat on your special Chihuahua and Great Dane mix.
However, since the mix is quite new, there might still be much that is unknown about how to maintain the coat, but a typical veterinarian would find a suitable solution for the grooming of your four-legged furry friend.
How Much Does A Great Dane Chihuahua Mix Cost?
It is quite hard to charge a breed that is still under construction. However, when you ask just how much a Great Dane Chihuahua Mix will cost, the cost is not just in buying the canine; you will also need to consider other factors such as medication, grooming as well as general upkeep.
Purchasing Price
On average, a good designer breed would fetch barely less than $1,500, and these breeds were going for just about $300 only five years ago. This is because more and more people are now interested in Designer doggie breeds. Reasons for this can vary, but you typically get the best traits that you desire for a mix of two or more breeds that have those characteristics you would like to see in your pooch.
Since there is a lot of skepticism about the mix of the Great Dane and the Chihuahua, demand should be on the lower side until confidence in the feasibility of the breed grows. On inception, most breeds do not get much attention until more and more people have seen the best of the breed’s traits and have a general idea of how to groom it and train it once temperament has been established.
Maintenance Costs
The amount of work invested in keeping the breed guides the pricing. Depending on your locality, costs will vary, but your typical bill should include medication when your furry buddy is unwell, training and activity toys, special coat lotions, and brushes. In some instances, you might consider Insurance for your canine.
Related Questions
Are Great Danes And Chihuahuas The Same Species? Great Danes and Chihuahuas are indeed the same species when all you are considering is whether or not they fall in the canine family. However, there are several differences between them, the most outstanding one of these being the sizes of the two breeds which make it harder to group them together for mating purposes.
What Happens If A Chihuahua Gets Pregnant By A Bigger Dog? A Chihuahua can definitely be impregnated by a bigger dog, not wanting to get into the technicalities of just how they would have mated. The challenge comes when the Chihuahua is carrying the fetus which typically outgrows the mother Chihuahua so that in most cases both the Chihuahua and the puppy will not make it to full term.
Is There A Miniature Great Dane? There is no Miniature Great Dane, so to speak. There may, however, be various designer breeds between the Great Dane with smaller dogs which include the Great Mexican or the mix of the Great Dane with a Corgi, for example. These will give a mini Dane or a medium-sized Dane version.
