Safe Eco-Friendly Cleaners to Use Around Pets

Our pets are more susceptible to the effects of toxins than we are because mostly they hang out closer to the ground and because their bodies are smaller and more delicate. Small animals like birds and reptiles are especially sensitive. And cats have an extra vulnerability due to their way of frequently licking their fur to groom themselves.

So it is helpful to know the kinds of ingredients in cleaning products to avoid and the ones that are safe to have in your home. Even eco-friendly cleaners and sustainable products more generally can contain ingredients that you don’t want for your pet, though less commonly. Let’s start with the chemicals to avoid. Here are the leading ones:

• Bleach and chlorine
• Ammonia (similar smell to cat urine so it may encourage your cat to pee outside the litter box)
• Phenols (a disinfectant that is corrosive to eyes, skin, and lungs, if breathed in)
• Formaldehyde
• Alcohol
• These essential oils can be harmful (cinnamon, citrus, lavender with cats, pennyroyal, pine, sweet birch, tea tree, wintergreen, ylang-ylang— list might not be complete; source CNN below)

There are many safe eco-friendly cleaners on the market. Shopping at a co-op or Whole Foods can give you a fairly wide selection of sustainable products, though eco-friendly cleaners are also sold at Target and many supermarkets. I’ll focus here particularly on cleaning solutions for use on floors and on pet stains, since these are used in areas that pets frequent the most.

Floors

1. White vinegar (use a thimbleful in a buck of water—safe for pets)
2. Distilled water (an excellent cleaner, not well known)

Pet Stains

1. Angry orange pet remover
2. Rocco and Rosie Stain and Odor Eliminator
3. Your own concoction of vinegar and baking soda

Be sure to follow any dilution instructions with all your cleaners. All keep them out of reach of your pets!

For further resources try these links:

https://www.greenhive.io/blog/7-best-non-toxic-cleaning-products-for-pets-safe-ingredients-and-the-safest-cleaner
https://www.cnn.com/cnn-underscored/home/best-pet-safe-cleaning-products
https://www.rover.com/blog/16-pet-safe-non-toxic-cleaners-love/#:~:text=Bonk%2C%20point%20to%20vinegar%20and,for%20extra%20fizzy%20cleaning%20power.