Dogs eating raisins and chocolate

mcast123

mcast123

mcast123

Associate
Joined
8 Feb 2006
Posts
1,322
When I was growing up 30 years ago, our dogs ate chocolate and grapes at least once a week, in fact I'm sure we actually fed them grapes as treats. Every dog we had died very old.

My girlfriend just rushed her dog to the vet after eating raisins, after a quick google, every site is saying even one grape can kill a dog.

Were we just uneducated before the interwebs?
 
More like different dogs have different levels of reaction.

Like humans have peanut allergies. That could mean someone gets an itchy mouth, maybe swelling, maybe death.
 
When I was a kid I used to feed our friend's spaniel fun-sized Mars bars. He seemed to love them. I had no idea I wasn't supposed to do that.
 
Chocolate has theobromides that are toxic to dogs, cats and probably other carnivores I remember giving my cat chocolate which he'd go nuts for though very rarely. Everyone was more ignorant back then.
 
we had a lab growing up who thought nothing of polishing off a tin of roses (somehow leaving the wrappers!...) much to the dismay of 12year old me, he lived to +12 years, i doubt it did him any good (nor the Easter eggs he also made little work of) but thats likely to the questionable chocolate content of said sweets! but like the saying goes ignorance is bliss
 
Last edited:
Some dogs are completely fine, some die with just one. So the general recommendation is don't do it just in case.
 
Blackjack Davy said:
Chocolate has theobromides that are toxic to dogs, cats and probably other carnivores I remember giving my cat chocolate which he'd go nuts for though very rarely. Everyone was more ignorant back then.
Click to expand...
most animals on the planet have problems with chocolate, personally I can eat 500grams quite easily and the only negative outcome is guilt
 
Em3bbs said:
I had a cat that used to eat custard creams in the 80s. Modern cats are pussies.
Click to expand...

I had similar, my cat used to have a thing for jam tarts. When he thought nobody was looking he used jump onto the kitchen shelves and help himself. If they were still boxed he'd drag the box off the shelf and chew at it until he could get in. Funniest thing ever was when he did it with some lemon curd tarts, he walked in with a sticky yellow nose and face and did that thing where they they to wipe stuff off and all the time he was looking at me with such disdain as if he was blaming me for his misadventure.
 
It's breed specific for raisins.

Chocolate is generally only harmful in large amounts, white chocolate doesn't contain theobromine.
 
As a pup, our Springer spaniel wolfed down a punnet of cherry pips. After the missus googled they were DEFINITELY gonna kill the poor animal it was rushed to the vets. It was given a 300 quid pill to make it throw up the pits. 30 minutes later not a thing was thrown up. After much sucking of teeth from the vet, I decided not to give it another 300 quid pill and took it home to watch it die an agonising death.


The next day, the garden was covered in cherry pits and it was shooting them out for hours..........
 
Same for onions and garlic. Whist you might not see any reaction with one, it could still cause problems, so better safe than sorry.

We're very cautious with chocolate, grapes, garlic, and onion around our boy.
 
We’ve always been cautious, but dropped the ball a few months back. I left half a packet of jaffas on the side table and we went out. Gone when we got back. No ill affects thankfully.
 
Neighbour was dog sitting a friends Labrador who is a massive scavenger for food and has to be hidden, she had just come back from shopping and was emptying the boot of the car and she brought a kilo bar of tolberone and the dog grabbed it from the boot ran onto the village green ripped the box open and ate it all including the foil.

Neighbour rushed it to the vets and was given charcoal and a drip and was sick everywhere but lived.

I had a border collie and he ate my whole tenth birthday chocolate cake like it was nothing and had no ill effects.
 
They’re not allergic to chocolate necessarily, but cocoa.

Milk chocolate doesn’t have much cocoa in it compared to dark chocolate.


I’d asked my local vet this question before, and they told my about a story where a dog had eaten an entire dark chocolate cake, and it was fine other than being really, really, really, really hyper :D


Like with many things, it’s often over exaggerated and with little evidence to back it up.


It’s probably best to avoid grapes and chocolate, but your dog will probably be fine if it steals some :)
 
Blackjack Davy said:
Chocolate has theobromides that are toxic to dogs, cats and probably other carnivores I remember giving my cat chocolate which he'd go nuts for though very rarely. Everyone was more ignorant back then.
Click to expand...

Toxic to humans as well I believe only we metabolise it so fast that its not possible to consume enough to cause an issue (or something like that)..

Quick Google and 5x the dose per kg of body weight to poison a human.. Compared to a dog
 
edscdk said:
Toxic to humans as well I believe only we metabolise it so fast that its not possible to consume enough to cause an issue (or something like that)..

Quick Google and 5x the dose per kg of body weight to poison a human.. Compared to a dog
Click to expand...

Humans are omnivores and like herbivores have a tolerance for plant toxins that obligate carnivores do not even small quantities of plant toxins can be dangerous to them whereas our livers have the ability to metabolise mild toxins without issue. Personally too much chocolate makes me quesy and a bit nauseous but whether thats the toxin or more likely a sugar/fat overload in the blood stream I'm not sure.
 
we had a Engish bull terrier -white with black spot - she loved Cadburys and if she was flat out asleep by the fire - no matter how you tried to quietly open a bar when in kitchen within seconds she was sitting at your feet.
She loved it and lived to a good old age.
 
I once walked into the living room to find the cat on the table with her head in the Christmas cake. She'd eaten quite a bit. No ill effects for her, apart from possible deafness from me bellowing with rage.
 
Our old cat Felix helped himself to my Mars calendar when I was 9 ate the whole thing while I was in school he was fine.
But I wouldn't let my current cats try a crumb just incase.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom