Why Can’t Dogs Eat Chocolate?
In the list of prohibited pet foods, we know that dogs cannot eat chocolate, but why is that? In this article, we’ll tell you what the effects – even fatal – of this candy can be on dogs.
dogs cannot eat chocolate
Of course you know this ‘maximum’ included in the decalogue of a good owner, but you don’t quite know why. We find it strange that something so beneficial to our health – if we talk about pure cocoa – is prohibited for our pets.
Of course, chocolate is not the only food not suitable for dogs, as we can also mention tomato sauce, eggplant and walnuts. Cocoa has a lot of antioxidants that, while they are good for humans, are not good for dogs.
We shouldn’t ignore this information, as eating chocolate can be fatal to a dog. That’s right, because this American food has a caffeine-like alkaloid called theobromine. It is a chemical that intoxicates people if consumed in certain amounts, but in dogs it is dangerous in low doses.
Therefore, if your dog ate chocolate – without your consent, as they are quite greedy – it may present different symptoms: from vomiting to diarrhea, passing through abdominal distension and colic. Thus, in more severe cases, where ingestion has been significant, it can cause seizures and heart failure.
How much chocolate is toxic to a dog?
Dogs are susceptible to this substance because they cannot properly digest it. If a man takes a maximum of three hours to digest chocolate, dogs need almost a day. They metabolize it up to nine times slower than we do.
We must keep in mind that a high dose of theobromine can be deadly even to people! But we would need to eat chocolate for a whole day, and for animals it takes less than 500 grams for intoxication.
A 20 kg dog can suffer the consequences of cocoa with the consumption of a 100 gram bar. So imagine what can happen to smaller dog breeds like the pug or poodle: a piece of chocolate might be enough to poison them.
The dose of cocoa poisoning is 5 milligrams per kilogram of weight. If you eat less than that amount, you will have the same symptoms as indigestion, but if you go beyond that amount, it can be fatal.
If you don’t arrive in time to prevent the chocolate from being eaten by your dog, you should immediately take him to the veterinarian so that, if he deems it necessary, he can undergo a detoxification treatment.
What happens to other pets?
We now know that dogs can’t eat chocolate and why, but if you have other pets at home, you should also be very careful, because cocoa can be even more dangerous for them than for a dog.
Cats, for example, are even more sensitive to theobromine. If we add to that the weight of the animal – domestic cats generally weigh about four kilos – we can understand that a small piece of chocolate will be deadly for them. Something similar happens with other domesticated animals such as rabbits and ferrets.
There is no need to stop eating chocolate or secretly make it at home. If you have pets, just be careful and hide them very well to prevent them from being found and eaten. A good place to store it is at the top of the refrigerator or high cabinets in the kitchen.
When you’re enjoying a piece of chocolate and your dog has that face you know all too well, make an effort not to share it with him. Don’t forget it can be deadly.
