# Can Pigs Eat Chocolate?



## botebum

I know that chocolate is dangerous for dogs. How about my pig? We've got a Big chocolate cake that noone here will eat(we just don't eat sweets much) Can we give it to the pig?

Doug


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## lasergrl

the amount of chocolate in a cake isnt enough to bother a dog unless real sensitive. I dont know how it is with pigs, its mostly the caffiene thats in the dark chocolate thats the problem. I would feed it. I have been feeding mine left over chocolate pastries with no problems.


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## botebum

I just googled it and it is not a good idea. I've got too much invested in this pig to take any chances. Looks like the neighbor's kids are gonna get a treat.

Doug


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## lasergrl

http://news.mongabay.com/2007/0520-hog_wild.html


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## botebum

Better safe than sorry- Check This

Doug


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## haypoint

30 years ago a farmer in central Michigan got a train car load of Hersey's candy bars. Some labeling problem and it was cheaper to throw it out than to repackage it. I don't recall the amount of chocolate bars he added, buy they did just fine on it. Check with your extension agent for ratios.


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## Ronney

Doug, my pigs get sweet things including chocolate cake and there have been no ill-effects as a result. Either give it to the neighbours children or give it the pig over a period of a few days. Unlike a bar of chocolate, there wouldn't be enough in the cake to hype your pig out any more than it would hype you out.

Cheers,
Ronnie


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## deaconjim

This thread is so ripe for a MIL / ex wife joke. I can't believe no one's taken the bait yet.


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## highlands

Pigs can eat chocolate and so can dogs. It takes a phenomenal amount of chocolate to reach toxicity levels and I get first dibs - the dog and the pig will have to wait in line.

Sure, there may be some dogs, and pigs, just like there are some people who are allergic to chocolate the number is few and far between.

This is a topic that comes up time to time. Here's a post from before:

---

chocolate is not toxic to dogs in reasonable amounts although of course anything is toxic in high enough quantities: From Snopes:

"Chocolate's toxicity to animals is directly related to three factors: the type of chocolate, the size of the animal, and the amount of chocolate ingested. Unsweetened baking chocolate presents the greatest danger to pets because it contains the highest amount of theobromine, approximately 390-450 mg. per ounce. White chocolate contains the least. As a general rule of thumb, _one_ ounce of milk chocolate per _pound_ of body weight can be lethal for dogs and cats. (Milk chocolate contains approximately 44-66 mg of theobromine per ounce.)"


That means for a 64 lb dog it would need to eat sixty ounces of milk chocolate. That is four pounds of chocolate! Crimminey! I have never seen or eaten four pounds of chocolate all at once never mind my dogs getting it. That much would probably kill a child too so if you're going to argue that chocolate is toxic to dogs then you'll need to say it is toxic to people too. That's a ridiculously huge amount to use as a claim for toxicity. That means it would take eight to ten pounds of chocolate to be toxic to our large dogs. Chocolate is not particularly toxic to dogs, or people. Eat reasonable amounts and ask yourself why you're feeding four, eight or ten pounds to the dog! My dogs don't get it but that's 'cuz I want it!

Cheers,

Walter Jeffries
Sugar Mountain Farm LLC
Orange, Vermont
Pastured Pigs & Sheep
http://SugarMtnFarm.com/blog
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## Ed Norman

Dogs are susceptible to the bromine and caffeine in chocolate. Pigs are like humans, nobody ever ODs on chocolate. Our hogs have eaten plenty of chocolate from the day old bread store.


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## Ed Norman

No, chocolate is dangerous for dogs. Not a little hershey kiss, but a bigger amount. Here's a quote from some study:

Despite high consumption of caffeine and theobromine in coffee, tea, cola beverages and chocolate, there is no documented human mortality associated with consumption of these products (New York, 1979). Put another way, while a dose of just three ounces of baker's chocolate can be toxic to a 10 kg dog, an equivalent dose of 21 ounces of chocolate to a 70 kg human is essentially harmless (Kreiser and Martin, 1980; Blauch and Tarka, 1983; Winston and Nguyen, 1984).

http://www.sheepusa.org/index.phtml?page=site/news_details&nav_id=d8bf42ad7aa6c74ac0938bc0ed48eed1


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## haypoint

A few years ago, I was talking to a driver of a "chip truck", the semis that haul wood chips. I askesd where he was headed and he told me "Bark River". I know there aren't any wood processing plants there, so I querstioned him further. He told me he wasn't hauling wood chips. I pointed to the screened vents along the upper parts of the semi's sides where I could see the mounds of chips. He took me to the rear doors and swung them open. He had 20,000 pounds of chocolate chip cookie crumbs! On the rear of the load there were several hoppers/tubs on wheels, filled with big chunks of milk chocolate. He said there was 5000 pounds of chocolate in those tubs. He was hauling from a Kebler cookie factory to a place that sells Bear bait. Baiting bear is a big business in some areas. Have also seen guys hauling 50 gallon plastic drums of smashed chocolate covered cherries and drums of outdated peanut brittle. Pickup truck loads of sweet rolls is common bear bait. I guess if bears will eat it, pigs can, too.


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## agmantoo

A pig can eat anything that a human can in the same relative portions that a human can consume.


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## botebum

Thanks for all the great replies. I guess the general feeling is that some chocolate is ok but don't overdo it. Oh well, the neighbor kids loved it and Sweet Pea doesn't know what she missed.
Thanks all.

Doug


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