We all know how important it is to recycle the tins our pet’s food comes in, but what about recycling all the other materials and products our pets require? There are a number of ways to re-use seemingly useless household waste for our pets, and ways to cut down on the waste they produce too.
Firstly, don’t dismiss your paper recycling bin as a mine of pet toys. Cardboard tubes are almost invaluable to owners of rodents, whether they are tiny mice or giant house rabbits. Mice and hamsters love to run through them and chew the edges, whereas rabbits pick them up with their teeth and throw them meters across the room. Be prepared with the hoover if you have a house rabbit as cardboard tubes can become shredded in minutes.
Cats, on the other hand, often enjoy batting around a scrunched up ball of paper. It depends on your cat’s temperament, but if they’re particularly playful then a ball of paper and floorboards/tiles will keep them amused for a while. A word of warning though, you will have to rescue paper from under the furniture! A lot of cats also love a cardboard box (as do guinea pigs so they can hide inside). If your cat is expecting kittens then line a box with newspaper and an old jumper or blanket and put it in a warm, secluded place for the perfect way to save your carpets.
Speaking of newspapers, it’s obvious that these are great for house training kittens and puppies, but they’re also good to line the bottom of cages and litter trays too. It means that when you clean them, all you need to do is lift out the newspaper and sawdust/sand/litter, fold it up into a parcel and throw it away. If you don’t line with newspaper then you have to wash and disinfect the actual cage/litter tray. If all you’ve fed rodent is fruit, vegetables and pet food then you can put the dirty sawdust package straight onto the compost heap. When you go to re-fill your rodent’s cage, bear in mind that old jay-cloths make great bedding when they’re cut up. If you’ve got an old holey one just throw it in with your next lot of washing and use it for bedding when it’s clean and dry.
When it comes to throwing away pet waste, you can be a lot more economically friendly than most. Invest in some good quality, thick bin bags and a small dustbin that sits just outside the back door. If your cat uses a litter tray, you can then just scoop the poo into the bin. The litter then only needs to be changed once every two or three days (per cat) and you can empty the wet litter into the bin too. This will save on litter, as well as reduce the amount of bags you’re using to bag up each lot of waste. We won’t sugar coat it - that bin will smell - but it’s better than having cat poo in your flowerbeds, right? You can do exactly the same with dog waste from the garden too.
You know that thick coating of white fat you get at the bottom of a roasting tray? Gross, we know, but there is a use for it. Keep it in the fridge, mix with about half the amount of peanut butter and a handful of mixed bird seed and with the back of a spoon smooth it into the cracks of a pine cone (which has string attached to it). Hang that from a tree branch and you have a home made bird feeder! This will attract a variety of wildlife into your garden, including squirrels, and helps to keep it alive in the colder months. We don’t recommend you hang these too low if you have cats.
These are just a few ideas of how to enrich your pet’s life with everyday household waste, but often the most useful and best ideas come from watching how they interact with the environment. For instance, one person’s cat may hate plastic bags yet another’s won’t stay out of them. The bag-lover’s owner could then cut plastic bags into strips, knot them together to create a plastic ‘wool’ and knit a basket for the cat to play in, so that it doesn’t choke. Think of what your pet likes to do, and how you could engage their interests with recyclable, pet-safe materials.
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We haven’t ever bought our cat any cat litter, we have always used things like shredded up paper and it works just fine.
As for our dog, every couple of weeks we give him one of our childrens (now grown up) old cuddley toys that he can use as a toy. This not only saves us money but also saves us buying toys that will need throwing away within a week or two.