Safer Than Any Pelleted Ice Melt

Ice control products and your pet

Bluntly, any ice melt pellet is going to hurt when it gets wedeged between paw pads.  95% of all ice melts are made from one of three chlorides (magnesium, sodium, or calcium) none are safe, all are toxic, all with dry out your pet’s paw making them crack.   Here comes the scary part.

Retailers understand that pet parents want to buy Pet “safe” labeling.  As a result that dog on the label,fetches bigger margins and even pet store distribution. Marketers have effectively positioned ordinary chloride technology as “pet safe” through clever packaging and colored pellets. In fact,  20% of all pelleted ice melts are sold to parents that believe the formulations are actually different and safe…

One last thing, the industry is unregulated — so packaging claims can be totally untethered to the ingredients included.  You’ll find that some pet store branded ice melts don’t even list ingredients even though they make substantial safety claims.

PlaySAFE Liquid Ice Blocker

Unlike pelleted pet “safe” products, PlaySAFE lists 100% of our ingredients — Calcium Magnesium Acetate, Potassium Acetate, and water.  These ingredients are totally safe for your pet’s paws, their tummies and our planet.  Since it is a liquid, there are no pellets to irritate paws and be licked clean.  It’s a superior anti-icer and a pretty good ice melt.

In both formulation and form, there  is no finer product for your pet’s home.

Pelleted Ice melt safety

Pellets pose two risks to our pets.  First, they can be toxic when ingested, and they dry out and irritate paws. For example, Calcium Chloride (the only ingredient in Scott’s pet safe Ice Melt) is a great ice melt because it heats to 120°F when it comes into contact with moisture from the ice, snow, or your pets mouth ☹️.  Paw Thaw claims to be safe and is sold in pet stores. But, according to their MSDS sheets, it is simply 95% Rock Salt.  Paw Thaw does not list their ingredients on the label, but they do flag that CMA is included for safety (technical documents reveal that amount to be no more than 5% of the blend)  FYI, coloring rock salt green does not make it safer.

Here are a few points to consider

• This industry is not required to list ingredients, even when safety claims are made
• These products are not vetted, it’s a mistake to make a purchase decision based upon the retailer
• Green coloring and a dog on the label does not make these safe
• *No Ice Melt input is safe.  They are either a toxin or an irritant, many are both
• These products taste like salt, you pet will eat what your shoes track in

* Some might argue that Urea (Carbonyl Diamide) is a safer option. It’s not an ice melt.  Urea is a fertilizer that’s 42% nitrogen, and very poor at melting ice.  Further, it breaks down into ammonia and will kill adjacent vegetation when used in the amounts necessary to melt anything.  Experts agree that a shovel will remove ice at the temperatures necessary for these products to work.

Closing thought

Apply what you have learned from the food bowl to all products consumed by your pets, and read the label.  Don’t trust that someone else loves your dog like you.