No Chocolate for cats

[khoiho]

I have read that chocolate is toxic to cats, but does anyone know why? I understand that cats lack the enzymes to digest chocolate, but what would happen if a cat eats chocolate? How does the cat get poisoned? And how little chocolate does it take before the cat is harmed? I have a three month old grey and white tabby and ever since she started living with us I have been paranoid about her accidently ingesting chocolate, so I've banned it from my house.

By the way, does anyone know what to do for first aid when your cat accidently eats something toxic?

Any advice would be great. Thanks.

[Troy]

It is true that chocolate is not good for cats - but I don't know exactly how toxic it is to them. They react to the theobromine found in chocolate.

I do not allow my cats to eat chocolate, although I do know of some cats that do eat chocolate and are still alive

I think, in general, that cats love the smell of chocolate rather than the taste. Mine will both smell it, and even start drooling but will not actually eat it.

Check-out this link:
http://www.fanciers.com/cat-faqs/health-care.html

And this one provided by SpencerTheLion in a previous post:
http://amby.com/cat_site/plants.html

[ms36]

I have two cats of my own and they don't seem to have problems with chocolate. If you do feed them chocolate they probably like milk chocolate and white chocolate. The most chocolate I will ever feed my cats is off of my fingers after I have eaten it. dont feed them much. If they have much stuff other than their normal diet they will vommit. I learned that from experience. Its not fun to clean it up either

[Troy]

You really shouldn't let your cat have chocolate. It may seem as if the don't have a problem with it but it definitely contains theobromine which is a poison to cats. Perhaps its an accumulative poison which doesn't have any effect until it reaches a critical point - pehaps I'm just being over precautious but...just in case be careful.

[bookitty1231]

I'm new to this site and stumbled across this topic. I wanted to let you know why chocolate is dangerous to cats. It contains theobromine, a caffine like substance that in a cats system acts like a stimulate and can cause seizures or heart failure, and can even be fatal. The reaction depends on the amount eaten. My mother has a friend who lost a dog due to eating a bag of chocolate it found, even after being taken to the vet it was too late.

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"As we all know, cats now rule the world."
--John R.F. Breen

[4 feline house]

Sometimes, when I fix a cup of diet coke and put it on the table, one of the cats will hear the fizzing and sound and stick their face in the cup to investigate. Invariably, they will jump back and look at me with an expression that seems to be saying "You drink that stuff?"

[This message has been edited by 4 feline house (edited February 02, 2001).]

[HowieDawn]

my niece's kindergarden teacher breads GSD's. We got into this "will chocolate harm animals?" I just wanted to put my two cents worth in, but am not incouraging chocolate to be fed to animals.

She said that one time when she wasn't home, one of her dogs got into a BIG bag of M&M's and ate the whole thing!

[HowieDawn]

oops didn't mean to say BREADS...she breeds GSD's (German Shephard Dogs)

[bookitty1231]

Oh my! I'll bet he had to go outside more than usual that day. I think that the size of the dog or cat should be considered also. Larger dogs would probably have to eat alot more for it to harm them.

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"As we all know, cats now rule the world."
--John R.F. Breen

[Troy]

...I was watching Animal Planet one evening when they had an emergency patient admitted on the "Emergency Vets" show.

A golden Lab' puppy was brought in after eating 2.2kg (1lb) of chocolate, 2 tomatoes and a banana Of course the pup was as happy as Larry with all the attention and meating all these new people at the practice - until he was forced to "regurgitate" his recent meals.