Garden products are they safe?
With the summer just round the corner most of are doing spring cleaning and start sorting out our gardens.
With that in mind we buy products which can help our plants and lawns. Most of us with pets will try and look for products labelled ‘’safe for pets’’ however, are they?
In this short article we will explain what ingredients to watch out for when choosing those products and that safe for pets label does not always mean SAFE.
Lawn Fertilizers
Lots of lawn fertilizers claim to be ‘’safe for children and pets’’. However, closer look at the ingredients and here is what we get:
– Nitrogen
– Phosphorus Pentoxide
– Potassium Oxide
– Magnesium Oxide
– Sulphur Trioxide
– Water-soluble
This is remarkable that such product is marked as safe for pets. Even tiny amount of some of these ingredients can cause a stomach upset and diarrhoea, consuming larger quantities can cause serious harm to your pets and even lead to a cancer.
Be careful when choosing your fertilizer and maybe to be safe keep your pets away from your lawn for couple of weeks after applying it.
Plant feeders
With plant feeders’ situation is a bit more complicated.
Many gardeners will know that different plants will need different feeds and so ingredients may vary.
However, most of them once again will have Nitrogen and Phosphorus Pentoxide which as we know by now can cause serious harm to our pets.
So, what can I do to keep my pet safe
There are few things you can do to make sure your pet is safe.
Most obvious one would be to keep your pet away from areas where you applied gardening products although this may be very difficult and not always achievable.
Second option may be trying to make those products yourself from natural ingredients – this might be time consuming of course – however that way you know exactly what goes into your product.
Third option is of course to train your pets not to lick and eat anything without consent. This is a very important training and very time consuming and we will shortly upload a tutorial about how to achieve it with your dog.
In conclusion
Some products may be harmful to your pets regardless of their label ‘’safe for pets’’ be careful when buying such products and try to check ingredients list against our database to make sure that neither of them are harmful for your favourite companion.
Before buying anything its always best to check before your pet gets near it, laws aren’t protective enough of pets and allow businesses to mark products as safe because unless consumed in large quantities they won’t kill your pet. Although it’s very unacceptable at least for now we should all trust ourselves and protect our pets from harmful substances ourselves until our laws change and protect our pets more.
