Does It Make Sense To Feed A Tortoise Chocolate?

[W Shaw]

Don't know whether anyone will see this because it's on an old post, but the reason chocolate is bad for critters is that theobromine, which is related to caffeine, is a stimulant that can cause irregular heartbeat. Many humans can't drink caffeine because it causes a rapid, irregular heartbeat. Others tolerate it with little problem The same is true for chocolate and other critters, but their lower body weight and extra sensitivity to it makes it much more likely that they'll react badly. Humans would have the same reaction to chocolate if they consumed enough of it, but we're less sensitive to it, and wouldn't be able to eat enough of it to experience this effect from it. We'd end up making ourselves sick on the chocolate long before we reached a toxic level of theobromine.