Can Cats Eat Chocolate?
No — the ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center lists chocolate among the people foods to avoid feeding your pet.
What the ASPCA publishes
Chocolate appears on the ASPCA’s “People Foods to Avoid Feeding Your Pets” list, which says:
“Chocolate, coffee, and caffeine are similar in that their toxicity concerns stem from their methylxanthine concentrations (a group of compounds found in these products). When ingested by pets, methylxanthines can cause vomiting and diarrhea, panting, excessive thirst and urination, hyperactivity, abnormal heart rhythm, tremors, seizures and even death.” “The darker (higher cacao percentage) the chocolate, or the higher the caffeine content, the greater the risk for toxicity. White chocolate has the lowest methylxanthine content while baking chocolate and cocoa powder have the highest concentrations.”
Common questions
Can cats eat chocolate?
No — the ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center lists chocolate among the people foods to avoid feeding your pet.
What does chocolate do to a cat?
The ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center publishes this, word for word: “Chocolate, coffee, and caffeine are similar in that their toxicity concerns stem from their methylxanthine concentrations (a group of compounds found in these products). When ingested by pets, methylxanthines can cause vomiting and diarrhea, panting, excessive thirst and urination, hyperactivity, abnormal heart rhythm, tremors, seizures and even death.” “The darker (higher cacao percentage) the chocolate, or the higher the caffeine content, the greater the risk for toxicity. White chocolate has the lowest methylxanthine content while baking chocolate and cocoa powder have the highest concentrations.” We reprint their sentence rather than paraphrasing it, because a paraphrase is what gets quoted back with the caution removed.
My cat already ate chocolate — what now?
Call your veterinarian, or the ASPCA Poison Control at (888) 426-4435. Note how much was eaten and when. This page reports what published sources say about chocolate; it cannot tell you whether your cat is affected, and no amount is described here as safe.
Other foods on the ASPCA’s avoid list
Every cat calculator
- Cat Age Calculator — Your cat’s age in human years, and why the sources disagree
- Cat Pregnancy Calculator — Your cat’s due date from her mating date
- Cat Calorie Calculator — How many calories your cat needs a day
- Kitten Feeding Calculator — How much to feed a kitten, by weight
- Kitten Age Calculator — How old your kitten is, estimated from its weight
- Kitten Growth Chart — What a kitten weighs at each age, from a published study
If your cat has already eaten chocolate, call your veterinarian or the ASPCA Poison Control at (888) 426-4435. This page reports what published sources say; it is not a diagnosis, and no amount is described here as safe.
Verified on . Based on ASPCA Poison Control (ASPCA, 24-hour emergency line, accessed 2026-07-28) and Kitten Age & Weight Chart (ASPCA Pro, 2023 (golden-test source, not used to build the calculation)). See the method.