Dangerous Product: Cocoa Mulch

[Djakarta]

Has anyone ever seen this product: Cocoa Mulch? Apparently it is quite dangerous to animals.

http://www.snopes.com/critters/crusader/cocoamulch.asp

http://www.pitbullrescuesandiego.com/cocoamulch.htm

[KjerstiMoo]

Well, it contains the stuff in chocolate that is toxic to dogs, so it's no wonder. Many people aren't aware of that even chocolate can kill your dog.

[Charlie's_mamma]

Originally Posted by KjerstiMoo

Well, it contains the stuff in chocolate that is toxic to dogs, so it's no wonder. Many people aren't aware of that even chocolate can kill your dog.

you're telling me! My mom's friend (R.I.P.) would feed her dog DARK chocolate all the time. I've heard that dark chocolate is even worse then milk chocolate.

[PiggieMom]

My cousin's dog passed away when we were little and he got into his halloween candy. He ate over 4 lbs or chocolate or something like that. I don't remember exactly I was only 5.

[Inrun]

I've never understood the chocolate thing, but my old dog must've been a freak because of it. He lived till he was 14 (pretty good for an elkhound). I think he ate 2 to 3 batches of halloween, easter or christmas chocolate a year. He was an incredible food hound.
Never once was affected by chocolate. We didn't feed it to him on purpose, he would just... manage to get it no matter what we did. He was pretty amazing like that. Bloody food oriented dogs.

[suzilovespiggie]

I had a German Shepard that had a huge sweet tooth. My ex husband had to have chocolate every day. When my son was about 8, he hid his Halloween candy under his bed from his father. (who was famous for eating all the chocolate bars out of my kids candy) My son comes home and all his candy was gone and wrappers everywhere. The dog ate it all. Lucky for us she did not get sick.
On a serious note. Chocolate affects the heart in dogs. Increasing the heart rate and can give them a heart attack. They love it but should never have it. Not even in small amounts.

[PiggieMom]

I think it was because my cousins dog was a smaller lap dog. I have a lab now who got into my Christmass stocking last year. He didn't get a lot of chocolate, only a couple candy bars, but he didn't get sick. He gets sick from other things though. There are certain perservatives in dog foods that gives him seizures so we were pretty surprised the chocolate didn't affect him.

[KjerstiMoo]

Dark chocolate contains more of the doggie-toxic stuff yes. Milk chocolate only has about 20- 30% cocoa, so it's not that dangerous.