If these ideas appeal to you, you can delve further into the topic with a new book out now by journalist and animal advocate Darcy Matheson called Greening Your Pet Care: Reduce Your Animal’s Carbon Paw Print.
Early on in the book, Matheson provides a compelling argument about why we should consider and address our pets’ environmental impact:
The carbon footprint of our family pets is poised to grow exponentially in coming years. The number of household pets has more than doubled in the US since the 1970s, says the Humane Society, and tens of millions of North Americans now share their homes — and lives — with animals.
Covering ideas such as shopping locally, buying in bulk, and making your own household (and pet-safe) cleaners, Matheson starts off with eco-friendly actions that can be applied to any pet care situation. In subsequent chapters, she dives into specifics for dogs, cats, rabbits, small animals, mini pigs, birds, reptiles & amphibians, and fish. The rabbit chapter has expert advice from rabbit rescue founders, rabbit-savvy vets, and, if you take a gander at the gardening and composting sections, you might see a quote or two from yours truly.
Greening your pet care may seem like a difficult challenge at first. But Matheson breaks down the different steps in a very intuitive and encouraging manner. If you would like to learn more or purchase the book, see:
And now for some exciting news! Self-Counsel Press is giving away a copy of Greening Your Pet Care to one lucky My House Rabbit fan. Enter the contest using the Rafflecopter widget below:
The contest ends on Sunday, May 22, 11:59pm EST and is open to residents of the continental United States and Canada only.
We want to hear from you! What do you think about eco-friendly pet care? Is it something you would consider? Have you already taken steps to reduce your pet’s carbon paw print? Tell us in the comments below!
Awesome! Sounds like a great read 🙂
We’re putting all the litter on our plants!
Yes, rabbit poop makes great fertilizer!
I need to learn the correct way to make my bun happy.
This is a great book. All bunies deserve to be happy.
We haven’t thought about reducing our pet’s footprint– but I love the concept.
Great share and information, thanks for the post!
I love this concept. We have tried by using coconut oil for his coat. Other than that nothing..
never heard of it sounds interesting
I am interested in this idea, but it seems to me that pet care involves so much trash that I can’t do anything with (Litter, vans etc.) that I wouldn’t know where to start.
Yes, this is true- there is certainly a lot of waste involved with pet care. Darcy provides some great tips on how to reduce the waste as much as possible in her book.
I must say, rabbit poop grows the best tomatoes EVER! I put a little scoop on the hole when I transplant my seedlings and side dress through the growing season!
Yes, I agree! Great advice!
I have been collecting my bunny’s poo for garden fertilizer and he has a lot of recycled home made toys . He has quite an impressive cardboard box castle, and I have also switched to layer crumbles for the cats litter box which is bio degradable
Those are great ideas! And yes, so true that rabbits love cardboard castles and other homemade toys you can make out of old shoeboxes, toilet paper rolls, etc.
No reviews on amazon yet but it sounds interesting.
Is it still available?