Having a pet at home is a full time duty. Just like every other part of your lifestyle, how you clean your pet, what you feed them and how they are treated affects your carbon footprint. Your pets can impact the surrounding eco-system substantially.Eco-conscious dog owners are naturally concerned about treating their pet buddies in the most environment friendly manner. Not to worry since there are simple ways by following which you too can be an eco-friendly dog owner. Six ideas are discussed below.
Choose Their Food Wisely
Not all dog foods are processed and prepared the same way. While so many of us have become mindful about eating organic food, few are conscious about what they are feeding their pets. Generally, the dog foods are made of by products from human grade foods such as soy bean meals or dried eggs.
In these ways, leftovers from human food industry are recycled and reused. Dog owners should check the ingredients section for such secondary by products and purchase only animal bone meal or organ meat for their pets. These types of foods are rich in nutrients and at the same time they are more eco-friendly options.
Dispose Dog Poop Carefully
You love your furry buddy but disposing their poop on a daily basis is most definitely not one of your favorite tasks to look forward to. However, disposing dog poop properly goes long way in making you an eco-friendly pet owner.
Make sure never to use plastic bags for disposing the poop. Paper towels are also not good options since you will need plenty of them daily. Reusable personal hand towels are a better choice for cleaning your dog’s waste in an eco-friendly manner. These hand towels can be machine washed and used many times.
Dog Waste Composting
Though composting is a little bit time consuming it will greatly support your endeavor of eco-friendly petting. How you compost dog poop will depend on your living style. Those who live in apartment will find this more difficult than home owners with some backyard space. Those with a garden can use dog waste as mulch for enriching the soil. Another way is to collect the poop and give it in eco-friendly bags to people who conduct large scale composting. In this way you and your pets will not be contributing to landfill and also prevent toxic remains from dog waste to mix with drinkable underground water.
Thoughtful Up-cycling
Often dog owners invest in colorful toys. Dogs cannot perceive colors and branded toys are as good for them as a ball of paper. Colorful dog toys are basically made for human use and after their life span is over they contribute to landfill.
If you have some DIY bones in your body then what’s better than to make some toys for your pets from the ordinary articles lying useless around the home. Use ropes to tie old tee shirts for making them a stick or put a plastic bottle in the old sock and put a knot on top to make a toy they can play with.
Stop Using Harmful Flea Killers
Dogs can be afflicted by common lawn pesticides. The traditionally used flea poisons owners use to get rid of the dog fleas and pests can also be the cause of their death. Most flea killers contain harmful toxins such as organophosphates that can damage the dog’s body on the long run. Such chemicals cannot be washed off either. Instead of using harmful chemical flea killers one can try safer options like soapy water, electric flea traps and diatomaceous traps.
Give Away and Donate
There is nothing better if your beloved pet can donate for the good of other canine friends. Surely, there will be toys, bowls, clothes and collars that your dog grows out off. Donate these to dog shelters for reuse. Such donations will make you a better eco-friendly dog owner.
To be an eco-friendly dog owner one must be cautious about buying dog-foods and disposing dog waste. Buy dog food product made of byproducts of human food industry. Also recycling old toys and upcycling items for making new ones are good ideas for eco-friendly pet rising.
