# 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

- Can cats eat grapes? https://petmeasure.com/cat/food/grapes
- Can cats eat onions? https://petmeasure.com/cat/food/onions
- Can cats eat garlic? https://petmeasure.com/cat/food/garlic
- Can cats eat avocado? https://petmeasure.com/cat/food/avocado

## Every cat calculator

- Cat Age Calculator: https://petmeasure.com/cat/age-calculator
- Cat Pregnancy Calculator: https://petmeasure.com/cat/pregnancy-calculator
- Cat Calorie Calculator: https://petmeasure.com/cat/calorie-calculator
- Kitten Feeding Calculator: https://petmeasure.com/cat/kitten-feeding-calculator
- Kitten Age Calculator: https://petmeasure.com/cat/kitten-age-calculator
- Kitten Growth Chart: https://petmeasure.com/cat/kitten-growth-chart

## Sources

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- Wikidata — cat breed mass (property P2067) — Wikimedia Foundation, query run 2026-07-28, CC0 license (https://query.wikidata.org/)
- Breed weights — official AKC breed standards — American Kennel Club, breed pages, accessed 2026-07-29 (https://www.akc.org/dog-breeds/)
- Breed life expectancy — AKC breed pages — American Kennel Club, breed pages, accessed 2026-08-10 (https://www.akc.org/dog-breeds/)
- Longevity of companion dog breeds: those at risk from early death — Supplementary Table S3 — McMillan et al., Scientific Reports (2024), 14:531, 584,734 UK dogs — Kaplan-Meier median survival for 155 breeds (https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10834484/)
- Life tables of annual life expectancy and mortality for companion dogs in the United Kingdom — Teng et al., Scientific Reports (2022), 12:6415, VetCompass — 30,563 deaths (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35484374/)
- Life tables of annual life expectancy and risk factors for mortality in cats in the UK — Teng et al., Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery (2024), 26(5), VetCompass — 7,936 deaths (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38714312/)
- Quantitative Translation of Dog-to-Human Aging by Conserved Remodeling of the DNA Methylome — Wang et al., Cell Systems, 2020, vol. 11, no. 2, p. 176–185.e6 (DNA methylation in 104 Labradors) (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cels.2020.06.006)
- Body-Weight Changes during Growth in Puppies of Different Breeds — Hawthorne et al., Journal of Nutrition, 2004, vol. 134, p. 2027S (https://doi.org/10.1093/jn/134.8.2027S)
- Obesity in Cats — overweight threshold and why ideal weight varies — International Cat Care, updated 26 September 2025 (https://icatcare.org/articles/obesity-in-cats)
- Cat Body Condition Score — the 9-point scale — WSAVA Global Nutrition Committee, June 2025 (descriptive scale: publishes no weight and no percentage) (https://wsava.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/WSAVA_BCSCat_BCSCat_Nutrition_250612.pdf)
- Growth standard charts for monitoring bodyweight in dogs of different sizes — Salt et al., PLoS ONE, 2017, vol. 12, no. 9, e0182064 (correction 2024: data availability only) (https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0182064)
- Nutritional Guidelines for Complete and Complementary Pet Food for Cats and Dogs — FEDIAF (European Pet Food Industry Federation), 2025 edition (growth curves Table VII-8a, growth energy VII-8b and VII-10) (https://europeanpetfood.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/FEDIAF-Nutritional-Guidelines_2025-ONLINE.pdf)
- Antihistamine Dosages for Integumentary Disease in Animals — Merck Veterinary Manual, dosage table, accessed 2026-07-30 (https://www.merckvetmanual.com/multimedia/table/antihistamine-dosages-for-integumentary-disease-in-animals)
- Urticaria (Hives, Wheals) in Animals — antihistamine course and the feline caution — Merck Veterinary Manual, accessed 2026-07-30 (https://www.merckvetmanual.com/integumentary-system/urticaria/urticaria-hives-wheals-in-animals)
- BENADRYL — diphenhydramine hydrochloride tablet, film coated (25 mg, single active ingredient) — DailyMed, U.S. National Library of Medicine, FDA product label, accessed 2026-07-30 (https://dailymed.nlm.nih.gov/dailymed/drugInfo.cfm?setid=702f9786-7ce9-43e4-921d-e1db09612127)
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- Approximate Gestation Periods — gestation length in the bitch and the queen — Merck Veterinary Manual, “Approximate Gestation Periods” table, accessed 2026-07-30 (https://www.merckvetmanual.com/multimedia/table/approximate-gestation-periods)
- Dystocia in Small Animals — Merck Veterinary Manual, “Diagnosis of Dystocia in Small Animals” section, accessed 2026-07-28 (https://www.merckvetmanual.com/reproductive-system/reproductive-diseases-of-the-female-small-animal/dystocia-in-small-animals)
- Factors affecting gestation duration in the bitch — Eilts et al., Theriogenology, 2005, vol. 64, no. 2, p. 242–251 (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15955350/)
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- The Special Needs of the Senior Cat — cat age in human years — Cornell Feline Health Center, Cornell University, accessed 2026-07-28 (golden-test source, not used to build the calculation) (https://www.vet.cornell.edu/departments-centers-and-institutes/cornell-feline-health-center/health-information/feline-health-topics/special-needs-senior-cat)
- Calorie Needs for an Average Healthy Adult Cat in Ideal Body Condition — WSAVA Global Nutrition Committee, updated July 2020 (golden-test source, not used to build the calculation) (https://wsava.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Calorie-Needs-for-Healthy-Adult-Cats-updated-July-2020.pdf)
- Assessment of body weight for age determination in kittens — DiGangi et al., Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery, 2019 (tables 1 and 2, weight-for-age, male and female) (https://doi.org/10.1177/1098612X19844846)
- Kitten Age & Weight Chart — ASPCA Pro, 2023 (golden-test source, not used to build the calculation) (https://www.aspcapro.org/sites/default/files/2023-08/aspca_kittenchart_2023.pdf)

Full method: https://petmeasure.com/sources

_Verified 2026-07-28. Estimates only — this does not replace veterinary advice._