Cocoa mulch-theobromine/dogs

jefa621

I don't regularly post here but I didn't see any similar posts so I apologize if this has been asked before.  I just spread cocoa mulch in my flower beds.  It's gorgeous, smells wonderful and I absolutely love it so far.  However, I completely spaced on the fact that I have dogs and I read somewhere that cocoa mulch can be toxic and even deadly if a dog eats it.  One of my dogs won't eat it (90lb German shorthaired pointer).  But the other (65lb German shorthaired pointer) may just try to indulge since it smells so much like food.  So far he hasn't but is it worth the risk?  Should I take it all up to be safe?  What would you do?  I feel like an idiot not thinking about this before we shelled out the dough for this stuff.  Ugh.

SusieBW

I would take it out.  Not only because it's harmful to your dogs, but also to other dogs in your neighborhood.  Most dogs seem to be on leashes nowadays, but not all, and I would be terrified of my neighbor's dog ingesting some of my mulch and getting sick or even dying because of it. 

I'm not sure how much they would have to ingest for it to be fatal (obviously depending on the dog and everything, but I think I've read that a dog can ingest a pretty good amount of actual chocolate before it's fatal, so I assume it would take even more of that mulch to actually kill the dog), but who wants to take that kind of risk, you know?

Sorry.  Maybe you can find someone or somewhere to buy it from you?  Or maybe the landscape place where you got it will somehow trade it in for wood mulch?  Good luck.

jefa621

SusieBW:

I would take it out.  Not only because it's harmful to your dogs, but also to other dogs in your neighborhood.  Most dogs seem to be on leashes nowadays, but not all, and I would be terrified of my neighbor's dog ingesting some of my mulch and getting sick or even dying because of it. 

I'm not sure how much they would have to ingest for it to be fatal (obviously depending on the dog and everything, but I think I've read that a dog can ingest a pretty good amount of actual chocolate before it's fatal, so I assume it would take even more of that mulch to actually kill the dog), but who wants to take that kind of risk, you know?

Sorry.  Maybe you can find someone or somewhere to buy it from you?  Or maybe the landscape place where you got it will somehow trade it in for wood mulch?  Good luck.

I'm a regular on TTGP and posted this question there. Quite the debate! I honestly think that the dog will leave it alone especially once the smell wears off. So I think we're going to watch him closely over the next few days and just see what he does. If he proves he can't leave it alone, then it will go back. Luckily we only spread a few bags of it last night. I'm sure I can take the rest back if we need to. Thanks!