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Chocolate is toxic to all animals, even humans. It contains a poison, theobromide, an alkaloid. It is also found in tea leaves and is produced by humans when caffeine is metabolized. All mammals can break theobromine down in the body into inert compounds, but carnivores (cats, dogs etc) are much less efficient at doing this. So about you can see theobromine poisoning with as little as 50g (about 8 oz) chocolate in small dogs, larger breeds might be able to consume up to 400g (14 oz).
Because rodents are small, even though they can metabolize theobromide efficiently, a small amount of chocolate would induce a large amount of theobromide into their bodies compared to body size.
Even in humans, gorging on chocolate (particularly in the elderly) can yield the symptoms of theobromide poisoning. In fact, if chocolate was being assessed as a medicine rather than a food, it would not be licensed for human consumption because of the potential toxic effects!
It is not true that chocolate has no food value. Admittedly, it's mostly fat with a few vitamins and the more processed the chocolate is, the more fat you have and the more sugar. But because of it's fat content it's a good source of storage energy (as long as you go for good chocolate with at least 70% cocoa solids). It also contains several chemicals that can help stabilize mood, so eating chocolate to feel happier makes sense.
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