{"id":443,"date":"2010-08-17T13:18:20","date_gmt":"2010-08-17T03:18:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/puppy.kreatology.com\/?p=443"},"modified":"2024-01-19T16:00:23","modified_gmt":"2024-01-19T05:00:23","slug":"dogs-and-chocolate-dont-mix","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/puppytales.com.au\/dogs-and-chocolate-dont-mix\/","title":{"rendered":"Dogs and chocolate don’t mix"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Since dogs share our lives and our homes we often like to feed them the foods that we like to eat. While some people might regard this as a special treat, we must be mindful that there are foods that humans can happily consume that are in fact poisonous to our furry family members. One of these such foods is Chocolate<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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What is in chocolate that is so bad for dogs?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

While humans and dogs are both mammals, it is clear that we are different in many ways. One of the not so obvious ways is that our physiological systems metabolise chemical compounds differently. This means that when our bodies come into contact with chemicals \u2013 by whatever means \u2013 dogs and humans can have very different reactions. Chocolate is made from cocoa beans which have naturally occurring methylxanthines<\/a>: caffeine and theobromine. Both these compounds are toxic to dogs but theobromine is the main culprit in chocolate as it is present in concentrations 3 to 10 times greater than that of caffeine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dogs metabolise theobromine very slowly and it can stay in a dog’s bloodstream for up to 20 hours. During that time it interferes with the body’s functioning by stimulating the central nervous system and affecting the heart and kidneys.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Specifically, theobromine and caffeine:<\/p>\n\n\n\n