5 Ways to Make Your Home Safe for Your Cats
#1. Keep Snow Globes Locked Away
I’ve written about this before. If you have snow globes in the house, you need them well out of the way. Pop them in a locked room or a cabinet that your pet isn’t going to get into. Snow globes have anti-freeze in them to prevent the liquid inside freezing during transportation. If broken they are extremely deadly for cats. All it takes is the antifreeze to get into the cat’s coat. From there, the liquid will be soaked into the blood stream. Because of a cat’s small size, just the slightly amount of antifreeze can lead to the kidneys crystallizing and shutting down. You only have a short amount of time to reverse the damage and it is very easy to overlook the antifreeze poisoning. The best thing to do is just keep the snow globes out of the way or not have them in your home at all. Put your cat first, like you would with a child.#2. Look Out for Pet-Friendly, Non-Toxic Paints
Paint is full of chemicals. You know from the scent that you get and you’ll be aware that the chemicals can be dangerous to asthmatics. Well, paint is also dangerous to cats because of the chemicals. In fact, it’s more dangerous because of the size of your pets. Their bodies will be affected by even the slightest amount, and you know how pets love to climb into pots, lick everything, and work their way around through scents. To keep your home safe for cats, opt for pet-friendly paints. These are created with natural ingredients and don’t have the extensive dangerous chemicals added in.#3. Get Chemical Free, Pet-Safe Carpet Cleaners
The next tip for a cat friendly home is to look into the carpet cleaners you have. Cats spend hours on your rugs and carpets. They will nestle into them, lay on them, and expose their whole body to them. While you want your carpet to be clean for this, using chemical-filled cleaners is just adding danger in other ways. For this reason, we recommend pet-safe carpet cleaners. Just because a carpet cleaner is pet friendly doesn’t mean that it isn’t effective. In fact, there are plenty of natural ingredients that are completely safe and more effective than chemicals! They’ll remove far more pet hair and dander than the store-bought, chemical-filled options. Even though these carpet cleaners are pet friendly, you will want to think about where you store them! Keep them out of reach, preferably in a locked cabinet like you would if there was a baby in the house.#4. Keep Air Freshener Use to a Minimum
Many pet owners will reach for the air fresheners to improve the scent in their homes. If you want to keep your home safe for cats, you’ll want to keep the use to a minimum and look out for non-toxic, pet-safe air fresheners. Like the carpet cleaners and paints, air fresheners tend to use chemicals, and cats love to smell them. You’ll also want to avoid potpourris. They are full of oils and are easily knocked over. If the oil spills on the skin, it is ingested. The oils become a skin irritant and can cause organ damage. Keep your home clean by removing pet hair and dander regularly. There are natural cleaners you can use to keep the scents fresh. Cat friendly plants are also highly beneficial to make the home safe for pets while helping with odors.#5. Look Out for Eco Stain Removers
Cats will leave stains behind. They may be learning how to use the litter tray and miss it on a few occasions, maybe they’re ill, or they may have knocked a drink over! You now have a stain to handle, and you will likely look at stain removers. Did you know they can also be dangerous to cats? If you want a cat friendly home, you’ll need to consider eco stain removers that are pet-safe. Eco removers are biodegradable. They won’t leave toxins behind that your cats can lick – and let’s face it, the scent of the cleaners may draw your cats in. Biodegradable is also better for the environment, which means you’re deal with two problems at the same time. It’s worth considering cat-friendly cleaners to tackle the spill or accident right away. This will help to eliminate the problem of staining, so you don’t need to opt for stain removers.Make Your Home Safe for Cats Today!
With the above five tips you can have a safer home for your cats and pets. There are toxins in some of the most surprising places. Make a switch for cat products that are designed for those with pets in the home. Don’t just look at the marketing pictures – take a look at the list of ingredients. The general rule is if the ingredients have words that you find hard to pronounce, there’s a toxin or chemical in there that your cats won’t like. Remember that cats love to explore. A slight smell and they will be over to check out what it is. And they will check things out with their tongue. Not only do you risk skin irritations, but they can get the toxins into their bodies. Make your home safe for cats by making the above five changes today! What measures do you take to keep your home safe for your cat?Hi, I’m Jenny Dean, creator of Floppycats! Ever since my Aunt got the first Ragdoll cat in our family, I have loved the breed. Inspired by my childhood Ragdoll cat, Rags, I created Floppycats to connect, share and inspire other Ragdoll cat lovers around the world,
Excellent post, Jenny! So very helpful! THANK YOU!!! 🙂 <3
I also make sure that any cardboard delivery boxes are either quickly broken down and bagged up for trash (if I can't remove the outside tape easily and not leave any sticky residue on the box) or I strip the taped areas off (without any residue being left behind) said boxes so our baby girl can play and chew on them safely.
Basically, I treat our apartment as if we have a toddler in it (as basically, kitties and doggies are like having a 3 or 4 year old child when it comes to finding the most dangerous thing to do or play with) and that's how I keep our Miss PSB safe and healthy.
Big hugs & lots of love!
Patti & Miss Pink Sugarbelle 🙂 <3
Wow, Jenny, what a great and in depth article to keep our kitties safe and out of danger. There are so many things that most people don’t even consider that are so harmful like snow globes if they break and the air fresheners’ fumes and toxic fluid. The one terrible event that one of our fellow Floppycaters went through when their air freshener leaked and ran into their kitty’s dish resulting in death, is burnt into my brain. My Heart goes out to them every time I see one of those. Really appreciate her sharing what happened so that others can be aware just how potentially deadly those seemingly benign products can be.
Know that this article probably will save someone else’should kitty by gleaning this knowledge.
Think it is also a good reminder to all of us too who have heard some of the info before because it brings it to the forefront of our thoughts.
One thing I like to do around this time of year too is to open the windows and doors so the fresh air can circulate.
Thanks so much!