Dogs and Cocoa Mulch...be careful!

It's that time of year, Spring has sprung and we are out in our gardens doing our best to make them look lovely and inviting. We use different plants, shrubs, containers and mulch to make all our hard work a success. However the type of mulch you use in your garden very well may look great but without knowing it, you could be putting your pets' health at risk.

Cocoa mulch is a wonderful looking and smelling mulch BUT it contains an ingredient called "theobromine" which is lethal to dogs and cats. It smells like chocolate. It really attracts dogs, and they can ingest this mulch and die.


Theobromine is in all chocolate, especially dark or baker's chocolate which is toxic to dogs. Cocoa bean shells contain potentially toxic quantities of theobromine, a xanthine compound similar in effects to caffeine and theophylline. A dog that ingests a lethal quantity of garden mulch made from cacao bean shells can develop severe convulsions and died later.

Cocoa mulch is sold in most garden supply stores such as Home Depot therefore you are not limited to this type of mulch. Home Depot and other garden supply stores have so many choices of mulch that finding a pet friendly one should be very easy...and just as simple to make your garden beautiful!