What are the odds that your pet falls over dead the instant you spray some Glade scented aerosol in the room? Pretty low. But what are the odds that your pet has a negative health problem or a behavioral reaction to a scented air freshener placed in your home? A bit higher. So let’s talk about it.
The bad news regarding air fresheners and pets is that they don’t always go together. An air freshener has a decent chance of affecting your pet in one of the following ways:
- Mild: Your pet is annoyed by the new scent.
- Medium: Your pet is allergic to the new scent.
- Severe: Your pet becomes ill due to the chemicals creating the scent.
The good news is that you can still make your house smell great while avoiding these problems, if you follow my simple three-step formula for using air fresheners in a pet-safe manner.
The pet-safe air freshener formula:
- If possible, use deodorizers instead of air fresheners. Good deodorizers work by catching smelly particles in the air, whereas air fresheners work by adding smelly particles to the air. These new smelly particles may cause problems with your pets.
- If you must add a new scent, only use all-natural ingredients to do so. Natural scented oils are the best choice for an air freshener that is least likely to harm your pet.
- Even if you’re using an all-natural air freshener, observe your pet closely for behavioral, health, or allergic reactions to the scent. If symptoms arise, remove the scent and see if they go away.
Step #1: Use Pet-safe Deodorizers
To follow step #1 of our formula above, we’re going to rely on using deodorizers to capture bad smells that are floating around our house. Most people using air fresheners are trying to cover up bad odors, but what if you could just remove them directly instead?
Removing bad odors with the right deodorizer has a zero percent chance of harming your pet, thus making it the safest air freshener option for using around any and all pets.
Let’s take a look at some of the best deodorizer options that pose no risk to pets:
- Odor-absorbing Bags Of Activated Carbon – Set these decorative bags in any room or enclosed area and they will constantly adsorb odor particles that come into contact with the activated carbon inside the bag – Click here to view.
- Air Purifier With Odor-absorbing Filter – Use an air purifier such as this to absorb odors in a large quantity of air – Must be used with an activated carbon filter (see below) to remove all odors effectively – Click here to view.
- Activated Carbon Filter – For use with the air purifier above – Absorbs odor particles too small to be caught by a normal filter – Click here to view.
- Baking Soda – A classic odor remover that is great for fabrics – Let it sit on a carpet or fabric for a few hours to absorb odor particles, then vacuum it up later – Click here to view.
- White Vinegar – Mix with some water in a spray bottle and use as a cleaning solution for any fabrics or hard surfaces – Kills odors and evaporates after to leave an odorless surface behind – Click here to view.
Step #2: Use Natural Fragrances
The great news about staying natural with air fresheners is that you can do so very easily by relying on essential oils. Essential oils are strongly scented oils produced from various plant materials found in nature.
Because they are natural smells that an animal might encounter in nature anyways, they are less likely to cause a health problem in your pets.
Another benefit is that if your pet does happen to be allergic to a certain scented oil, that doesn’t mean they will be allergic to every scent. You can try a different scented oil and see if your pet reacts better to it instead.
See my recommended essential oil air fresheners here:
- Essential Oil Diffuser – Disperses natural oil into the air to produce any fragrance you desire – Click here to view.
- Essential Oil 6-scent Value Pack – Comes with 6 different fragrances to get you started with all-natural scents in your home – Click here to view.
- Flower Power 3-scent Spray Bottle Value Pack – For instant aroma anywhere you want, just spray one of these bottles to your heart’s content – Comes with 3 different natural scents – Click here to view.
Step #3: Observe Your Pet For Bad Reactions
Even when using all-natural ingredients to smellify your home, your pet may still think that your chosen scent is… too smelly.
Just like humans can be allergic to natural scents such as citrus, pets can as well.
This means that you’ll need to observe your pet closely during the days and weeks after adding an air freshener to your home in order to be sure that he isn’t having a bad reaction.
If your pet has a bad reaction, remove the air freshener immediately and see if he returns to normal. If one scent is bad for your pet, you might want to try using it at a lower strength setting, or switching to a different scent. If your pet reacts badly to every scent you try, you’ll have to rely on deodorizers instead.
Some signs that your pet is not handling your new fragrance include:
- Your pet avoids the room with the new scent.
- Your pet avoids the whole house and prefers to stay outside more than usual.
- Your pet avoids his normal sleeping spot and sleeps somewhere else.
- Your pet begins peeing or pooping in weird spots that he didn’t before.
- Your pet’s eyes or mouth show excess mucus or drainage that didn’t exist before.
- Your pet isn’t “being himself” lately since you added the new scent.
- Your pet displays any other signs of unexpected illness or negative behavioral change.
If any of these describe your pet since you added a new air freshener to your home, remove it immediately and follow the advice given above.
