is chocolate bad for dogs?

Question

i've heard yes and no.

Answer 1

Yes. Very very bad for dogs. I hope you're not feeding it to your dog!

I really hate it when people post long answers ripped from an informative website, but this question has been asked at least 3 times today. Did you know that you can type in a question up in that box at the top and it will show you questions that are exactly like yours? Anyway, there's the really long annoying, but informative, answer.

Why is Chocolate Lethal?
Chocolate contains theobromine. A naturally occurring stimulant found in the cocoa bean, theobromine increases urination and affects the central nervous system as well as heart muscle. While amounts vary by type of chocolate, it's the theobromine that is poisonous to dogs.

Symptoms of Chocolate Dog Ingestion and Poisoning
You can recognize that your dog has eaten a toxic dose of chocolate from the symptoms. Within the first few hours, the evidence includes vomiting, diarrhea or hyperactivity. As time passes and there's increased absorption of the toxic substance, you'll see an increase in the dog's heart rate, which can cause arrhythmia, restlessness, hyperactivity, muscle twitching, increased urination or excessive panting.

This can lead to hyperthermia, muscle tremors, seizures, coma and even death.

How Much Chocolate Is Deadly?
If a 50-pound dog eats a teaspoonful of milk chocolate, it's not going to cause serious problems. However, if that same dog gorges himself on a two-layer chocolate cake, his stomach will feel more than upset and soon it's likely he'll be vomiting or experiencing diarrhea.

To answer the question "How much is too much" is not simple. The health and age of your dog must be considered. Obviously if your dog is aged and not in top shape, his reaction to a plate of chocolate is going to be different from a young healthy dog of the same weight.

Another fact that must be considered is this: Not all chocolate is the same. Some has a small amount of theobromine; another type has a large amount and still another contains an amount that is somewhere in between. The quantity has a relationship with the weight of your dog. Small dogs can be poisoned, it is easy to understand, from smaller amounts of theobromine than large dogs.

Which chocolate is the safest, relatively speaking? White chocolate. It has the least amount of theobromine: 1 mg per ounce. Far on the other side of the spectrum is baking chocolate, which has a huge 450 mg of theobromine per ounce!

Here are a few other chocolates for you to ponder: hot chocolate, 12 mg of theobromine per ounce; milk chocolate, 60 mg/oz; and up there near baking chocolate: semi-sweet chocolate with 260 mg/oz.

You might try using this to remember these chocolates from least to most toxic: What Happy Moose Says BAA? Or: White-Hot-Milk-Semi-Baked. If you have a better way to remember, contact us!

Knowing which chocolate is the most toxic is important, but leaves one wondering how much must be eaten to poison a dog. The list in this box should be helpful. Maybe you can clip it and post it on your refrigerator?


White chocolate: 200 ounces per pound of body weight. It takes 250 pounds of white chocolate to cause signs of poisoning in a 20-pound dog, 125 pounds for a 10-pound dog.
Milk chocolate: 1 ounce per pound of body weight. Approximately one pound of milk chocolate is poisonous to a 20-pound dog; one-half pound for a 10-pound dog. The average chocolate bar contains 2 to 3 ounces of milk chocolate. It would take 2-3 candy bars to poison a 10 pound dog. Semi-sweet chocolate has a similar toxic level.
Sweet cocoa: 0.3 ounces per pound of body weight. One-third of a pound of sweet cocoa is toxic to a 20-pound dog; 1/6 pound for a 10-pound dog.
Baking chocolate: 0.1 ounce per pound body weight. Two one-ounce squares of bakers' chocolate is toxic to a 20-pound dog; one ounce for a 10-pound dog.

Source(s):

http://www.dogownersdigest.com/news/libr...

Answer 2

It is not good for your dogs! I have a great Dane who is loves the stuff. I have to put chocolate items on top of the fridge. First time she got into a bag of peanut butter cups I had hidden in a drawer... came home from work and saw the empty bag on the floor! She ferrets the stuff out and eats it!
She was OK for a little while, I went into the other room and when I came back to her...ugh! Projectile vomiting! She was big enough that it didn't effect her too bad. I also had some breath treats for dogs that contained an edible charcoal, that helped.
She is just like an addict when chocolate is around! So be careful where you have it and DO NOT give your dogs any.period.

Answer 3

I am going to make my male sheltie read this page... Yes i have heard chocolate is bad for dogs. I put all chocolate under lock and key. He gets it Halloween candy and he hides it so he has a stash. He gets into chocolate cake when we are gone as he knows how to open the microwave even. He is addicted to the dangerous poisonous chocolate. Some dogs i have heard get really sick and almost die, some just get the diahrea, mine it doesn't bother him at all. So i think it varies from dog to dog but i wouldn't feed it intentionally!

Answer 4

Yes it is. It is poison to them, some dogs can survive eating it. Others can't. I know someone who's Yorkie a a chocolate kiss and died. But my Chihuahua ate a 1/2 pound of fudge and survived. Which was made out of Baker's chocolate which is the worst kind for dogs to eat. But my old babysitter's dog, Brantley lived off table scraps and cat food and he ate lots of chocolate and he lived to be 24 in dogs years which is 90 sumthin in people years I believe, so I guess it depends on the size and health of the dog. But even if your dog is lucky you should never feed them chocolate.

Answer 5

In one word, yes. Chocolate, especially dark chocolate contains a chemical called theobromine which acts as a stimulant and dogs cannot tolerate this chemical. If a dog eats too much chocolate, especially the dark variety, he/she could die and the key is how much is too much. My schnauzer got into a 2 lb bag of hershey's kisses and ate nearly the whole bag. I immediately rushed her to the vet emergency center where she was lavaged with activated charcoal and given valium and intervenous fluids and kept over night to the tune of $400.00. My vet later told me that if she had eaten a similar amount of dark chocolate, she probably would not have survived.

My advice is don't feed your dog chocolate period and he/she will be much less likely to develop a taste for it and you will be less likely faced with an accidental poisoning from chocolate.

Answer 6

Yes, extremely bad, and in some cases dogs have died from eating too much chocolate:(

Answer 7

Chocolate contains theobromine an alkaloid that breaks down very slowly when ingested by a dog. If the concentration is high enough it will lead to heart failure. It is also found in tea and cola products.

Answer 8

I have heard that it causes neurological problems. I haven't had any bad experiences with it, though. I don't go out of my way to feed my shih tzu chocolate, but only occasionally there might be a chocolate chip in a piece of cookie I give him.

Answer 9

Theobromine poisoning or chocolate poisoning is an adverse reaction to the alkaloid theobromine, modern-day in chocolate, tea, cola drinks, and some different meals. Cacao beans include about a million.2% theobromine by technique of weight, at the same time as processed chocolate oftentimes has smaller quantities. the quantity modern-day in notably sophisticated chocolate goodies (regularly 40-60 milligrams in protecting with ounce or a million.4 to 2.a million grams in protecting with kilogram) is a lot decrease than that of darkish chocolate or unsweetened baker's chocolate (over four hundred mg/oz.or 14 g/kg). the quantity of theobromine modern-day in chocolate is sufficiently small that chocolate should be competently fed on by technique of people in tremendous parts, yet animals that metabolize theobromine more effective slowly can actual devour adequate chocolate to reason chocolate poisoning. the most immediately ahead sufferers of theobromine poisoning are dogs (for which it should be deadly). Cats and quite kittens are yet more effective smooth, and many different animals are also susceptible. the first indications of theobromine poisoning are nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and more effective urination. those can progression to cardiac arrhythmias, epileptic seizures, inner bleeding, heart attacks, and ultimately death. Theobromine is particularly poisonous to horses, dogs, parrots, voles, and cats because they're unable to metabolize the chemical effectively. in the adventure that they are fed chocolate, the theobromine will stay of their bloodstream for as a lot as twenty hours. clinical clinical care includes inducing vomiting interior 2 hours of ingestion, or contacting a veterinarian. a common 20 kg canines will generally journey intestinal misery after ingesting decrease than 240 g of darkish chocolate, yet received't unavoidably journey bradycardia or tachyarrhythmia except it eats a minimum of a 1/2 a kilogram of milk chocolate. in accordance to the Merck Veterinary guide, about a million.3 g of baker's chocolate in protecting with kilogram of a canines's bodyweight (0.02 oz.lb) is adequate to reason indications of toxicity. as an example, a common 25 gram baker's chocolate bar should be adequate to convey out indications in a 20 kg canines.

Answer 10

Yes. They are not supposed to eat it. In fact, my friend's dog ate a whole box of chocolate and almost died...