Protecting Your Furry Friends: 5 Guaranteed Pet-Safe Cleaning Products
Your pets are beloved members of your family. Between vet visits and buying the best food, you do what you can for your furry friends. But did you know that many common household cleaners contain ingredients that are toxic to your four-legged loved ones? Many home cleaning services use products that can seriously damage your pet’s health.
If you want to ensure the safety of your pets, read on to learn more about pet-safe cleaning products and what common household cleaners should be avoided in pet households.
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Are Pet-Safe Chemical Cleaning Products Completely Safe for Pets?
Many chemical cleaning products are marketed as being safe for use around pets. But are they really?
Even if a chemical cleaning product claims to be pet-safe, it may not be — especially if your pet somehow ingests it. When shopping for pet-safe cleaning products, it is important to do your due diligence and check the ingredient list.
How can a chemical cleaning product claim to be pet-safe if it isn't? This is due to “greenwashing,” which has allowed a lot of cleaning products to use misleading “pet-safe” or “non-toxic” labels.
In fact, this intentional deception has led to lawsuits. The well-known brand Simple Green was sued for its misleading “non-toxic” label. Simple Green settled for $4.3 million and was required to remove the “non-toxic” labels from their products.
The only way to ensure the safety of your pets is to get an honest, non-toxic cleaning from a trusted brand like Tidy Up Portland! Tidy Up Portland! is the premier cleaning service offering pet-safe house cleaning in Portland.
How Harmful Cleaning Agents Can Affect Pets
We might treat our pets like humans, but their bodies are very different from ours. Pets are smaller and have more delicate senses of smell — especially dogs and cats. Their noses are also lower to the ground, where we tend to use the most chemical cleaning agents.
For dogs and cats, the ingredients in many chemical cleaners, even those marked as pet-safe, can irritate their noses and cause issues with the respiratory tract. If this irritation is severe, it can lead to serious respiratory illness and infection.
If your dog or cat ingests a toxic chemical cleaner (like drinking out of an unattended mop bucket, for example) the results can be disastrous. Ingested chemical cleaners can cause GI upset, vomiting, lethargy, and even death in dogs and cats. If you suspect your dog or cat has ingested a chemical cleaner, call your veterinarian or contact the ASPCA pet poison control hotline immediately.
If you are a bird household, you need to be even more careful with the cleaners you choose. Birds' respiratory systems are very different from mammals and extremely delicate. Exposure to toxic fumes from cleaning supplies can cause death very quickly. If you own birds, be sure to do your research on what cleaners you can use around them.
Cleaning Ingredients That May Be Harmful to Pets
For this list, we are going to be focusing on products that are dangerous to mammals, such as dogs, cats, and ferrets. If your pets are more feathery or scaly than furry, be sure to do independent research on what cleaning products you can use around them.
The most common household cleaners that are dangerous to pets are bleach and ammonia. These ingredients are found in many cleaning products, such as toilet cleaners, window and glass cleaners, all-purpose sanitizers, etc. Don’t use bleach and ammonia in pet areas, and make sure to use them with ventilation in other areas of your home.
In addition to bleach and ammonia, avoid the following cleaning ingredients around pets:
Phthalates: These fragrance-enhancing chemicals can irritate a pet's respiratory tract, and are common in many cleaning chemicals, including so-called pet-safe cleaning products.
Phenols: Phenols are corrosive chemicals used for disinfecting. Phenols are sometimes also called carbolic acid. They are extremely irritating to pet’s eyes and noses, and toxic if ingested.
Ammonia-based cleaners: In addition to ammonia being toxic to pets, it is especially troublesome in homes with cats. Ammonia smells like urine to cats and may encourage urination in the house.
Rubbing alcohol: Yes, even humble rubbing alcohol can be very dangerous to your four-legged friends. If ingested, isopropyl alcohol (aka rubbing alcohol) can cause severe poisoning. Do not use rubbing alcohol for cleaning anywhere your pet could get to it.
Formaldehyde: It’s no surprise the chemical used to embalm dead bodies is extremely toxic to living ones! While you might think formaldehyde is rare outside of a funeral home, think again — formaldehyde is found in several common household cleaners. Be sure to read your labels, and when in doubt, switch to a confirmed pet-safe cleaning product.
Certain Essential Oils: Essential oils are marketed as the ultimate non-toxic cleaning additive, but that is not true. Many essential oils, including tea tree, cinnamon, pine, sweet birch, wintergreen, and all citrus (lemon, orange, etc.) are toxic to dogs, either on their skin or when ingested. Use caution when selecting cleaners with lots of essential oils, and be sure to never apply essential oils to your pet.
What Cleaning Products Are Safe To Use Around Pets?
The only way to ensure that cleaning products are safe for your pets is to read the label thoroughly. Ensure that no toxic agents like bleach or ammonia are present. Try to find fragrance-free cleaning products, as those are less likely to contain irritating phthalates and essential oils.
5 Pet-Safe Cleaning Agents
Lots of cleaning agents are toxic for pets. But you still need to keep your home fresh and clean, which is hard to do with animals in the house! To avoid toxins without compromising on cleanliness, try these 5 safe-for-pets cleaning products:
#1: Baking Soda
Baking soda used to be the ultimate cleaning hack and is still the unsung hero of pet-safe home cleaning. This bicarbonate of soda is non-toxic, making it completely safe to use around children and pets.
Use baking soda in the laundry, to wash the bathroom floor, or even to break down rust deposits in your shower head!
#2: Lemon Juice
If an acidic chemical is needed for cleaning, consider lemon juice. Lemon juice is a mild acidic like vinegar, but it is also a reducing agent. This makes lemon juice useful for disintegrating proteins, an important element in tackling stubborn stains. Lemon juice is also a mild bleaching agent, great for removing deodorant and sweat stains from white clothes.
Best of all, lemon juice is non-toxic to pets!
#3: Cleaning Vinegar
Vinegar has been used as a cleaning agent for centuries, and for good reason. From microwaves to floors to coffee makers, cleaning vinegar is the best pet-safe cleaning chemical available.
If the smell of vinegar bothers you, you can add some lemon juice or a small amount of pet-safe essential oil like lavender.
It is important to note that while there are several different types of vinegar, cleaning vinegar is a non-food product due to its high acidity. In a pinch, white vinegar is a good substitute as it is acidic and does not contain sugar.
#4: Enzyme Stain Removers
Vinegar, lemon, baking soda — that's all great. But what about the nasty stains? The super-gross thing your dog threw up or the result of your cat missing the litter box? You want to use non-toxic cleaning chemicals, but you still need your cleaning agent to get the job done.
Cleaning enzymes act as a powerful alternative to toxic chemicals. These naturally occurring compounds can break down nasty stains without being toxic to pets. Cleaning enzymes are so effective that they can be used to clean floors and medical equipment, giving you a clean you can trust without putting your pet in danger.
Ensure Your Housekeeping Is All-Natural and Pet-Safe With the Help of Tidy Up Portland!
Want a sparkling clean home using cleaning products safe for pets? Try Tidy Up Portland! At Tidy Up Portland!, we know your pets are family, and we guarantee a clean that is thorough, non-toxic, and safe for pets and children.
At Tidy Up Portland!, we are proud of what we do. We have cleaned over 10,000 homes and have many 5-star reviews on Google. Not only do we offer a trusted, pet-friendly clean, but Tidy Up Portland! is one of the only cleaning services to allow online booking. No long phone calls, no wait times. Simply check out our website and book your cleaning today!
