Have you ever experienced munching on chocolates and your feline craving for a bite? Like dogs even cats don’t mind taking a lick of chocolate but can a cat eat chocolate?
Cats cannot eat chocolate because it contains two ingredients that might not harm humans but is definitely a threat to cats. Those ingredients are caffeine and theobromine.
Based on a study conducted by Frontiers in Pharmacology, theobromine is toxic for cats or any other pet as it directly impacts their heart rate and leads to loss of fluids in the body.
So, like dogs is chocolate bad for cats? Yes, even a bite of chocolate is not recommended. Let’s read this article to know more about which chocolates are bad for cats, symptoms of chocolate toxicity, and how to treat chocolate poisoning in cats.
Contents
Can Cats Eat Chocolate?
As mentioned earlier, chocolate is poisonous for cats. One must strictly avoid giving their feline chocolate because it contains ingredients that deteriorate cat health. In other words, chocolate is toxic for cats and results in diarrhea, vomiting, and many other symptoms.
Typically, there is cocoa, milk, theobromine, xylitol etc in chocolates. Consumption of even half an ounce of cocoa powder might end up in the cat experiencing seizures. Oftentimes, some cats are intolerant to milk, their system goes for a toss consuming white chocolate.
At times, your feline might gaze at the flavored ice cream you are relishing and you might probably want to give him/her a lick. Well, a tiny lick of the flavored chocolate food won’t harm but to give your cat more than that is a big ‘no-no’.
Wondering how much chocolate is allowed for cats then? It clearly relies on the quantity of consumption. Talking of which, anything more than 0.5 ounces is clearly bad. The worst of all iind vss giving your cats dark chocolates.
Symptoms of Chocolate Toxicity In Cats
So far we know why chocolate is dangerous and toxic for cats. Now let’s learn all about what happens when your cat is affected by chocolate toxicity. Listed below are the symptoms to watch out for!
- Dehydration and Urination
- Restlessness
- Indigestion distress
- Fluctuating heart rate
- Panting
- Loss of appetite
- Twitching in the muscles
- Tremors
- Hyper behavior
- Drop in blood pressure
When your cat eats chocolate it gets absorbed by the body and shows its effects in a few hours. If the situation after eating chocolate gets worse, your cat could be unwell for about 3-4 days.
Treatment Of Chocolate Poisoning In Cats
Clearly, chocolate is bad for cats. However, it isn’t that bad if you know how to treat your cat. Here are useful ways of treating chocolate poisoning in cats!
Get Your Cat To Vomit
As much as possible, try and make your cat vomit. A cat vomiting it out makes work easier during treatment.
Although making your cat vomit can be an uphill battle, you got to do it with the help of medications. You can use hydrogen peroxide, salt water, mustard seed water etc.
This is done to wipe out all the particles from your cat’s body.
Get Your Cat Admitted In A Hospital
In case the toxicity is severe, your cat will need to be admitted at the hospital to get the chocolate out of his/her system through fluids.
- The vet is likely to follow two procedures while treating toxicity
- Circadian rhythm and heart rate will be checked
To prevent chocolate from entering the bladder, a urinary catheter will be used to flush out toxins from your body.
Activated Charcoal Will Be Given
Charcoal is given to a cat to stop chocolate from entering the upper intestines and stomach. This procedure is done only when vomiting isn’t enough to drive out all the toxicity.
Ventilator &Medication
To ensure your cat is breathing fine, the vet might keep give your cat a ventilator and medication is given to keep a control over seizures or any sort of muscle tremors.
Will My Cat Be Ok After Eating Chocolate?
Cats taking a lick of chocolate is not a big deal but when your feline consumes a little chocolate, it is bad.
Based on the quantity of chocolate your cat has licked, it should take a few days for your cat to feel okay he/she might experience vomiting or hyper behavior. However, if the toxicity is serious it can even be a threat.
Preventing Chocolate Poisoning In Cats
As chocolate is not safe for cats the only way to take precautions is by finding a safe place to hide those yummy chocolate treats from your feline.
There is always an alternative to chocolate. Since chocolate is bad for cats why not give your feline berries, tuna, catnip, carrots, banana, green beans, salmon, cheese, eggs, lamb, and other treats specifically available for cats in the market.
There is no guarantee if human food is totally good for cats but giving them to your cats in small quantities is still better than chocolates.
Other Foods That Are Toxic To Cats
It isn’t just chocolates that are bad for cats, the listed below foods too are clearly poisonous for cats
- Raw potatoes
- Raw tomatoes
- Raw eggs, dough, and bones
- Alcohol
- Grapes
- Raisins
- Dog food
- Dairy products
- Tea
- Coffee
- Energy Drinks
- Garlic
- Onions
Final Word
To wrap it up, as a cat owner now you would never doubt if cats can eat chocolates or not as you know it all. When cats consume dark, baked, milk, flavored, and candy chocolates it only gets toxic in their body due to the presence of caffeine and theobromine.
As prevention is better than cure, always keep chocolate-based foods away from your cat’s reach. By chance, even if your cat consumes chocolate and you don’t know, check for chocolate in your cat’s breath or fur, contact your vet, and the vet will check your cat’s stomach, blood, and urine to detect chocolate particles. All in all, chocolates are bad and poisonous for cats when ingested too much. Please continue to visit our website for more such kinds of articles.
