chocolate for dogs why.....?

Question

is it bad for them?

Answer 1

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.

Answer 2

Chocolate contains a substance called theobromine which is related to caffeine that they cannot metabolize. It is this substance that is toxic to them. The risk from eating chocolate is related to the size of the dog and how much they ate. One M&M won't kill a 50 lb. dog, but a bar of dark chocolate would be dangerous.

Answer 3

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. If you want to give your dog something along the lines of chocolate, make sure it has carob in it instead of theobromine.

Answer 4

Yes of course it is bad for them!! espiecally bitter sweet chocolate and bakers chocolate, Its toxic to dogs, and they can't process it through their system... And you should not feed any dog dairy ingriedients you know why?? Because all Dogs are lactose Intalerant...

Hope this helps

BYe

PS if you want me to give you the whole long list of things your dog should not eat, send me a note in one of my questions

Answer 5

Yes, Chocolate for dogs is harmful for them because in certain amounts the dog cant break down the sugars in the stomach...resulting in death

Answer 6

Dogs are not human. Different things will be okay for dogs to eat and not for humans and vice versa. Their bodies are not meant to process many things ours are.

There's no answer as to why it's toxic other than- their body can't deal.

Why is arsenic toxic to humans?

Alot of the stuff that is bad for dogs is bad for small children too. Artificial sweeteners- toxic for dogs, not that great for humans either.

Answer 7

Chocolate is toxic for the dog.

http://missouriscenicrivers.com/baddogfoods.html

Answer 8

Never give a dog chocolate it is lethal to them..

Answer 9

YES! Do not give a dog chocolate. Any vet will tell you that, they can become very sick from it and even die.

Answer 10

Yes! The larger the dog, the more they need to eat, but it does not take much! Also the more cocoa content the less they need to eat in order for it to really harm them or worse, kill them.