The biology that makes festival food dangerous for dogs
Dogs metabolise theobromine, the stimulant compound in cocoa, at roughly one-fifth the rate a human does. A 10-kilogram dog that eats 50 grams of dark chocolate barfi has consumed enough theobromine to trigger vomiting, muscle tremors, and cardiac arrhythmia. This is not an allergy. It is a straightforward pharmacological overload: the dog's liver cannot clear the compound fast enough, so it accumulates. Chocolate modak, cocoa-dusted ladoo, and any mithai made with real chocolate carry this risk at quantities that look trivial on a puja thali.
