Monthly Archives: March 2008

Let’s Talk Chocolate Toxicity and Dogs

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Here’s an excellent article about chocolate toxicity and dogs from For the Love of the Dog. Cat owners, you have little need to worry, it seems that cats avoid chocolate for some reason. Maybe dogs could take a lesson in this!

As a dog owner, you should know by now that your dog should not eat chocolate. It is toxic and in a large enough quantity, it can kill! So let’s talk a little about chocolate and what’s in it that’s the problem.

  • The toxic component of chocolate is theobromine.
  • The half life in the dog is 17.5 hours.
  • The Toxic dose in the dog is 100-150 mg/kg (kilogram (kg) = 2.2 lbs, milligram(mg) = 1/1000 of a gram).

So for a 50 pound dog, a toxic dose would be roughly 2.2 grams (2200 mg) of pure chocolate. For a 10 lb dog, the toxic dose is 500mg.

However the concentration of theobromine varies with the formulation of the chocolate so:

  • Milk chocolate has 44mg/oz (154mg/100gm): toxic dose for 50 lb dog – 50 oz of milk chocolate.
  • Semisweet chocolate has 150 mg/oz (528mg/100gm): toxic dose for 50 lb dog – 15 oz of semisweet chocolate
  • Baking chocolate 390mg/oz (1365 mg/100gm): toxic dose for 50 lb dog – 5 oz of baking chocolate

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Supplementing Your Dog’s Diet – Glucosamine

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This comes from my For the Love of the Dog site;

Although I am not a proponent of commercial dog food, I will admit that most high quality dog foods do have most of the vitamins, minerals and whatnot your dog needs. As you stand in the store pondering the plethora of varieties of dog food for your dog’s diet, your mind can truly become overwhelmed. The numerous ingredients in dog food simply complicate things even further. Who really knows what all of those ingredients really mean? You see glucosamine on some of the dog food labels. That sounds a bit familiar. What exactly is glucosamine and why should it be in your dog’s diet?

You have probably heard of glucosamine in the news. Glucosamine has been beneficial to joint health in humans. Research has also shown that glucosamine in a dog’s diet can be beneficial to your pet’s health.

Glucosamine is a dietary supplement that has been shown to encourage good joint health. This supplement helps to maintain good joint cartilage. Glucosamine is one of the key building blocks to produce joint lubricants. The joint lubricant helps to keep the joints moving and functioning with ease. Glucosamine in your dog’s diet will ensure your pet’s joints work at their peak performance levels for years to come.

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