5 Natural Ways To Welcome Pets Into Your Home While Keeping Pet Odors Out
By Amanda Austin,
Guest Blogger for Venta Airwasher*
We love our pets, but we don’t’ love the smells! If you want your house smelling less like dog, follow these five natural ways to welcome pets into your home while keeping pet odors out.
Quality Pet Food
Like humans, the food we feed our pets affects how we feel–put a cheeseburger in your mouth, and you might not feel so great the next day. High quality food can help your pet feel better on the inside and also smell better on the outside. Many commercial cat and dog foods contain high amounts of seeds and grains, which are inexpensive and filling for the animals, but not quite as easy to digest for pets. Choose a meat-based, low-grain, soy-free pet food for the best results. Keep in mind that cats and dogs have different dietary needs. Check with your vet about what type of food will provide the best nutrition for your specific pet.
Brushing
Pet dander can cause odors, but also can cause allergies, asthma, and respiratory problems in the home. Pet dander is like dandruff in humans; it contains dead skin cells. Pets shed this dander regularly, but with good brushing, you can catch the dander as you brush instead of it ending up on furniture, bedding, and carpets.
Buy a good brush that can help keep fur in the bristles while you’re brushing. Look for a brush that has bent wire bristles to keep the fur in the brush until you remove it. You may have to try a few different types since some pets are more sensitive than others.
Baking Soda and Vinegar
Forget expensive cleaning products that may contain chemicals. One of the best products out there to remove pet odors is also natural and inexpensive: baking soda. Baking soda can be used mixed with water and vinegar for a spray cleaner, can be sprinkled on carpets and bedding and then vacuumed to pull odors out of soft materials, and it can even be sprinkled on your animal before you brush them! Another great use is to sprinkle baking soda in the bottom of a litter box to help absorb the smell of cat urine. A box of baking soda costs less than $1, and is completely safe for pets (Also check out the many uses for baking soda in absorbing odors).
One of the biggest culprits in pet odors in the home is urine, which can come from cats who miss the box, puppies who are potty training, or just from litter box odors around the house. Vinegar is a surprising natural odor neutralizer–surprising because vinegar by itself has an extremely pungent odor. To neutralize urine odors, spray vinegar in the offending area, then either wait for it to dry, or wait a few hours, then steam clean the area. Although there may be a small vinegar smell for a few hours, as the smell fades, so will the smell of pet urine in your home.
Air Purification
A good quality air purifier can help “wash” the air of bad odors, remove allergens, and help add humidity to the air. This can also help maintain normal temperatures within your home. The result will not only be a fresher-smelling home, but also better air quality for you and your pets.
Essential Oils
A few types of essential oils can help curb odors in your home and even on your pets. A combination of lavender, peppermint, and orange oil makes a homemade “doggie deodorant” that can leave your pup smelling great and feeling more relaxed (lavender is known for its soothing qualities). Combine 10 drops of lavender oil with six drops of peppermint and orange oil, and add to one cup of distilled water. Put the mixture in a spray bottle and spray lightly on your pet, taking care to avoid the eyes. Geranium oil is another option, and can also help repel fleas. Mix 10 drops of geranium oil, six drops of lemon oil, and 1/8 cup of distilled water and spray on your animal. Another clean-scented flea and tick repellant made with natural oils is Flea + Tick by Pet Naturals®, which is available in a spray and wipes and safe for all pets.
Amanda Austin is a social media manager for a health care organization by day and a blogger and freelance writer by night. She’s also a mom to an amazing 2 year-old boy and wife to a great guy who indulges all her celebrity gossip. Amanda loves coffee, fashion, Twitter, makeup, nail polish, and cats (not always in that order.) Her work has been published on family.com and blogher.com. For more celebrity gossip, fashion, beauty and DIY, visit Amanda’s blog, It’s Blogworthy, or follow her on Twitter and Google+.
*Note from Pet Naturals® of Vermont: This week’s blog post is a guest post submitted by Venta Airwasher. The views and opinions of this blogger do not necessarily match our own.