Hello,
I am sure that giving your dog an abundance of chocolate may harm them; however, my dogs get chocolate ice cream in moderation every night without harming them. My last dog lived to be 14 years old and ate chocolate ice cream all of her life.
Years ago I lived with a family while I went to high school. The guy gave his dog Brownie a half of a Hersheys chocolate bar every week when he returned from buying the groceries. The dog died at age 16!
So it is hard to believe that NO CHOCOLATE is the answer to dogs' health problems ... or to say that it applies to all dogs. - Marie
Hello Marie,
Yes it does apply to all dogs, but obviously the amount of harm done is relative to the amount of chocolate they eat, the size of the dog, the type of chocolate (solid, dark chocolate is the worst as it contains a large amount of cocoa), the dog's over-all health to start with, and whether they have perhaps a weakness that will be made worse by eating chocolate.
Chocolate (cocoa) does contain a substance that is toxic to all dogs, though not highly so (they will not drop dead after a few squares of chocolate). If they have a little each night it is like a person smoking - some will get away with no disease and others will become ill - we all know someone who began smoking at 10 years old and is still healthy at 85. That is why the 'chocolate drops' made especially for dogs should be given to them in preference to ordinary chocolate - they contain no cocoa.
If you must feed human chocolate to your dog then do at least give him/her white chocolate or carob chocolate, which is okay. When you know there are harmful substances in a product it is surely better to avoid that product than to feed it to the dog and hope nothing happens.
However, on a different angle, I do hope that all dogs given any kind of chocolate are given their dental chew bones afterwards, or something like a piece of raw carrot to chew on to clean their teeth. And I also hope that any dog tending to overweight is not given chocolate of any kind - a good raw meaty bone is what such dogs need.
The only type of dogs that may actually benefit from eating chocolate (non-cocoa type of course) are hard working dogs that must keep their blood sugar levels up to cope with their workload. - Elezabeth
Grape toxicity
There has been no definite word so far on grapes and raisins from any source - it seems the researchers are reluctant to add their logic and the vets can only work on what their clients tell them ... a notoriously unreliable source of information. We would love to hear from anyone who has definite proof of grape toxicity. In the meantime it is better to avoid grapes and err on the safe side. - Ed
