Find out how serious it is if your dog has eaten chocolate, from their weight, the type of chocolate and how much they ate.
Your dog may still get an upset stomach from the sugar and fat. Call your vet for advice, especially if your dog is small, old, has a heart condition or you are unsure how much was eaten.
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Chocolate contains theobromine and a little caffeine. Dogs break these down far more slowly than people, so a snack for us can poison them. The calculator multiplies the amount eaten by how much of these compounds that kind of chocolate contains, then divides by your dog’s weight to give a dose in milligrams per kilogram.
The darker the chocolate, the more dangerous it is. Gram for gram, cocoa powder and baking chocolate are more than ten times as strong as milk chocolate, while white chocolate contains almost none. We use the higher figures from the published ranges, so the result leans towards caution.
Don’t wait for signs: they can take several hours to appear and last a day or more. Don’t try to make your dog sick at home. Call your vet with your dog’s weight, the wrapper and the time it was eaten. Making a dog sick works best within a couple of hours, so ring straight away.
Mild signs can start at about 20 mg of theobromine and caffeine per kilogram of body weight, heart problems at 40 to 50 mg/kg and seizures from 60 mg/kg. The MSD Veterinary Manual puts a potentially lethal amount of milk chocolate at about 62 g per kg of body weight, and far less of dark chocolate or cocoa. For a 10 kg dog, mild signs can follow roughly 90 g of milk chocolate, 22 g of 60% dark chocolate or 7.5 g of cocoa powder. Every dog is different, so always call your vet.
White chocolate contains very little theobromine, so poisoning is unlikely. It is still fatty and sugary and can cause vomiting, diarrhoea or pancreatitis, so call your vet if your dog has eaten a lot.
Signs usually start within 2 to 12 hours and can last a day or more. Your vet can make your dog sick to bring the chocolate back up, which works best soon after it was eaten, so call as early as you can.
Yes. Cats are as sensitive to theobromine as dogs, but they rarely eat much chocolate because they can’t taste sweetness. If your cat has eaten some, call your vet.
Yes. It shows the estimated total dose and the dose in mg/kg, using the MSD Veterinary Manual’s contents for each chocolate. Clinical decisions should take account of the individual dog.
These tools are planning aids, not a diagnosis or a replacement for veterinary advice. If a pet is unwell, has eaten something risky, or you are unsure what to do next, contact a vet.
Calculators and checkers for everyday pet care.