Why should you buy eco-friendly toys for your pet?

With 9 million dogs and 8 million cats in the UK, the pet market is a huge industry. As our world evolves to become more environmentally friendly, our options for buying better are rapidly growing.

But, other than the environmental factors, why are these eco-friendly toys better for our pets?

Whether you have a strong jawed Rottweiler or a tiny kitten, domesticated pets still have instinctual and playful natures. No toy is indestructible. Even if you don’t have an extensive chewer in your family, toys don’t last forever. When looking for long-lasting, safe and entertaining toys, the eco-friendly market is offering us great new alternatives to the mainstream market.

Jute has become an increasingly popular material to use for pet toys. Second to cotton, it’s one of the most versatile vegetable materials. Due to its strength and versatility we’re used to seeing this material used for hessian cloths, curtains, chair coverings and even carpets. The nature in how it is woven dictates its durability and its robustness. Being a natural plant fibre, jute is also 100% biodegradable. All the fun for your pet, without any concern that it will remain on a landfill site for hundreds of years afterwards.

Processes used to manufacture the material don’t need chemicals. The lightness in colour of the natural fibre means that it also doesn’t need a heavy chemical process to dye it to another colour. This means that when your pet is carrying around a toy made from jute, or chewing on it, they aren’t ingesting any chemicals.

As the animal industry isn't so vigorously tested like products are for humans, there's potentially toxic ingredients going into mainstream, cheaper, plastic toys. Some flavourings added to toys like bacon, beef or chicken have been known to cause allergic reactions. PVC (specifically the chemical additives to soften the plastic), BPA and Formaldehyde are amongst the list of components in toy manufacturing. After prolonged exposure these are known to cause respiratory, gut and digestive problems.

We should also consider the structural makeup of our pet toys. Often some of the harder plastic chews aren’t safe for our dogs. They can be too hard for our friends and can cause teeth fractures. We also run the risk of parts of these toys being bitten off and swallowed, with no ‘give’ they can cause digestive obstructions. Unaware of what's inside these toys can also cause a danger when someones in a destructive mood and gets to the core of a toy. The jute material has plenty of give and can be tugged around like any other toy. As a natural material, if the unfortunate opportunity occurs that your pet can swallow part of it, the risk of digestive obstruction is much lower.

As with any toy, all pets should be supervised when playing with them. When pets hear squeaking or high pitched noises coming from toys, they associate it with their natural hunting instincts, causing the destruction reaction. By choosing sensibly and to your pets individual needs we can reduce the dangers and entertain them!

Choosing eco-friendly means no chemicals, great durability and of course, less damage to our environment!