Warning! Do not use cocoa hulls!

[leight54]

Aside from the danger to the chickens and ducks, they're putting several dogs at risk - including their own! This is an open, country property, with 3 rental houses, so no fencing around the yard. Fortunately, the landlord is the mother of the 3rd tenant, and is livid that her "grand-puppy" is in danger of poisoning, so she'll probably make the offenders remove the mulch. Oh, this could get ugly!

 

[furbabymum]

To the vets I have a serious question about the chocolate thing.

I worked for a vet at the CSU vet teaching hospital. I asked him about chocolate and dogs and he said it usually takes a large quantity to make a dog ill. Is cocoa hull mulch that much different?

 

[furbabymum]

I should add that my dogs are very large so it would take much more to harm them than it would to harm a toy dog.

 

[Achickenwrangler#1]

My chihauhau ate a Hershey kiss from off the counter! On the rug was a crumpled aluminum foil, two feet away a blob of regurgitated chocolate....lucky that time.

 

[Mattemma]

What a shame.Very sorry for her loss. Hard to keep ducks under control,but alas that is the risk we take when we let animals roam.You just never know what dangers lie beyond our properties. I would use that mulch in the front where my animals can not get,but I would not want to attract ants. I am sure my chickens would eat the mulch.They ate the swheat scoop I tried on their coop floor.

 

[chickenreferee]

To the vets I have a serious question about the chocolate thing.

I worked for a vet at the CSU vet teaching hospital. I asked him about chocolate and dogs and he said it usually takes a large quantity to make a dog ill. Is cocoa hull mulch that much different?

I was taught as a vet tech that although chocolate can be dangerous for dogs to ingest, depending on the size of the pooch, they would have to eat a very large amount relative to their body weight and even that in something like the bittersweet stuff, not milk chocolate.

I've been out of the veterinary medicine loop for some time now, so I can't really comment on the severity of ingesting cocoa hulls, but I wouldn't doubt they could cause serious if not fatal complications if there were enough theobromine still left in that particular brand of hull after processing.

 

[Whispering_Raven]

I've used Hershey's cocoa mulch for 15 years in my gardens, and have always had cats, dogs, goats and now chickens and ducks. It's only toxic if ingested in large amounts. I have NEVER lost ANY of my pets or livestock to cocoa mulch. I'm organic and do not use any herbicides or pesticides anywhere on my 20 acres, whereas most suburbanites and even rural folks should own stock in round up, scotts grub killer, and seven dust. Just sayin.


-Tracy

 

[furbabymum]

I've used Hershey's cocoa mulch for 15 years in my gardens, and have always had cats, dogs, goats and now chickens and ducks. It's only toxic if ingested in large amounts. I have NEVER lost ANY of my pets or livestock to cocoa mulch. I'm organic and do not use any herbicides or pesticides anywhere on my 20 acres, whereas most suburbanites and even rural folks should own stock in round up, scotts grub killer, and seven dust. Just sayin.


-Tracy

We just need to own stock in mole and mouse poison. That's it. It would be seriuosly impossible to kill all the weeds on 40 acres.

 

[SunnySkies]

Cocoa mulch has approximately 255 mg/oz methylxanthines. Milk chocolate has about 63 per oz. Mild signs of toxicity start at 20 mg/kg. A 50 lb dog who ate 8 oz mulch would be in serious trouble.

Some dogs eat it, some won't. We couldn't have it here because my own dog would eat it. How a dog can choke down8 oz by weight of bark...yuck.

 

[flgardengirl]

Along with the theobromine/theobrimide, I would be worried about the risk of strong pesticides in the mulch. Most cacao comes from other countries, so who really know what is sprayed on it for pest control. I would imagine since the hulls are on the outside of the beans they would get more spraying residue than the actual beans would although much of the poisons used now are systemic and taken up by the entire plant. In addition, I read one article that said cacao bean pods were routinely sprayed (or gassed) with methyl bromide when entering the US and australia. This is the same toxic chemical that was used on some wood pallets to kill pests coming into the country via wood. The pallet spraying was supposedly being phased out but from what I' ve read, it isn't totally yet. wood pallets sprayed with methyl bromide should be stamped MB but if they are old ones it may be worn off or painted over etc.

Pesticides even through the skin can be quite dangerous. My stepfather being the out door guy he is, stopped at a rest stop after a long drive. It was a nice day out and the grass looked freshly mowed and he took a little rest in the grass under a shaded tree. He had on shorts and a thin t-shirt. He started having heart palpitations and trouble breathing. An ambulance was called and once admitted after further testing etc. they found he had pesticide poisoning from the grass being sprayed earlier that day. Kinda scary.

I have several little cacao plants in my yard and the birds don't seem to bother them. In fact, we have lots of poisonous plants here but our birds are used to what is around here and grow up learning what they should an shouldn't eat. If they went to the neighbors, they would probably eat squirrel poison since that is what they like to do over there. You will never be able to control things outside your own yard so you will have to keep your animals inside. It is a hard learning curve when one of them suffers but ultimately up to the pet owners to keep their pets safe. If the renters don't have it in the contract that they can't use certain chemicals or mulch products on their yard , it may be hard for the landlord to enforce such things until contract renewal unless they are month to month. Maybe they will be nice and just remove it anyway.
Try googling cacao and pesticides. Here is one source that tells a few pesticides listed that are used on cacao and their side effects (scroll down to where it says pesticides in chocolate) http://www.grinningplanet.com/2004/02-03/pesticides-in-chocolate-organic-cocoa.htm