I know dogs can die from eating too much chocolate, but what about other species/pets?
My GF’s ferret managed to get it’s way into a bag of chocolate chip cookies, and managed to eat a little bit of it. We got the cookie away before it could eat much other than the cookie part, but it got me to thinking whether it could have gotten ill/died if it had managed to eat a whole cookie.
So what animals can get ill/die from chocolate overdose?
Dogs are sensitive to theobromine which is in the same family as caffeine. There is a similar risk for cats but all cats don’t have the ability to taste sweet things so they are less likely to eat it.
What are the symptoms of chocolate poisoning in humans?
I know someone who eats about two big bars (230g each) a day, and (weirdly) he has a lot of the symptoms described in Pullet’s ferret link.
IIRC, if you eat 7 pounds of chocolate in one sitting, you can reach a euphoric, marajuana-like high. If that’s true, then Laudenum’s buddy isn’t getting enough chocolate to hit the acute toxicity dose.
My google-fu is saying that the exact toxic level of chocolate for humans is poorly understood, which my read-between-the-lines brain interprits as “it happens, but not often.”
What we need now is study on chronic chocolate toxicity, to see what happens to folks who only eat 4 pounds of chocolate a day. Volunteers?
Anyone know if chocolate is poisonous to bears or raccoons? I have something chocolate flavored (chocolate and cocoa are both ingredients for these awful rice cakes) I’d like to put in the compost bin, but there’s at least a 50% chance that it will be raided by bears or raccoons, which we normally don’t worry about other than setting the bin back in place once its been knocked over. One of the local raccoons who is a frequent visitor has babies in tow, and I’d hate to hurt them.
I had a dog that committed suicide (no other explanation) by eating 8 oz of unsweetened baker’s chocolate along with the wrappers. He was horrifically ‘stoned’ the first twelve hours, seemed to sober up, and then just keeled over with a heart attack in the midst of barking at someone who came to the door.
I’ve eaten chocolate flavored rice cakes before, when trying to maintain weight for HS wrestling. If they’re anything like the ones I ate I’m betting any chocolate flavoring is like the #4 ingredient, and it’s probably some diluted chocolaty substance.
If you’re still concerned, you could toss them out like 2-3 at a time over a period of time.
Dunno about raccoons, but I wouldn’t worry about bears unless you have a truly massive amount of this stuff to get rid of. Part of the problem of chocolate toxicity, AIUI, is that some pets are much smaller than humans, so it doesn’t take much chocolate to give them trouble. Bears aren’t going to have that problem unless they’re cubs. (If you have bear cubs visiting your yard, I demand that you post pics)