Survey: Do You Green Your Pet?

Cook his meals? Pshaw! I feed raw.

I voted "half-way". Our (oldish) cat has allergies and I'm sticking to the food the vet prescribed, but our cat also has ecological cat litter.

A friend of mine has house rabbits and says their poop makes the best fertilizer. Which is good, because rabbits poop A LOT.

dog toys all come from goodwill... I get shank bones from the local butcher shop... wash the dog using Dr. Bronner's. Food is bought at the local pet shop and is all organic human grade food. Who needs poop bags and pooper scoopers? Get a freakin' shovel and bury the stuff. Anything that ends up in my yard goes in a bucket and added to a compost pile. I have a separate one that I don't spread on root crops. Never saw the sense in putting poop in a land fill.

We have a dog. His ecological footprint is pretty small. He eats a 40 lb bag of food every 1.5 months, drinks a few pints of water per day, and uses little electricity (only a fan on his cage in the summer when we're gone, an occasional CFL light if he's alone in the evening). We have to use the car to take him to the vet and dog park every once in a while, but this is pretty small. His only toys are an old towel, a dog rope, a fabric hamburger, and rawhide bones. Plus he gets some table scraps and gets to help prewash dishes.

We used to buy special biodegradable bags for picking up after him, but stopped when we realized how many bags we had that were not being reused (bags from loaves of bread, newspapers, fruit, etc are sufficient even after using our own bags at the grocery store). They were going to be thrown away anyway, and it's near impossible to eliminate these bags from our lives.

We tried raw with our cats, but they were having none of it. We do use ecologically friendly cat litter and no other chemicals though.

We have three guinea pigs, and they eat organic hay, organic pellets, and organic vegetables. The bedding is recycled and recyclable, but it makes even better compost (with the poop). Once our garden gets moving this spring, we'll be feeding them out of the garden.

It's a good life being a guinea pig. =)

Even if I didn't live in an apartment, most of the research I've found advises against composting animal waste unless it can get up to the proper temp to cook all the bad bacteria that can leech into our water systems. When it comes to food and litter and the rest, miss kitty's one paw away from a treehugger!

my cat poops outside.

Well I consider my biggest green step [though not only, by far] as being vegan, but I wouldn't impose that on my pet [although I've heard convincing arguments for that action, I myself am not convinced]. So I guess I would have to say "halfway", although that's a bit of a complicated statement.

our pet is fed organic vegetables, yams, and wild salmon. he sleeps on an organic pet bed, and does not receive toxic toys. his shampoo is non-perfume, and plant based. he is the "greenest" dog in the neighborhood.

The number one way to reduce pet waste is to not buy from puppy mills. Adopt your dog! Recycle someone's unwanted pet!

There are products like doggie doodle that do compost dog waste.

See The ecological footprint of a house cat and other ethical dilemmas

For those considering getting a cat or dog there are some very important challenges, ethical dilemmas and potential problems you may want to consider.

See The ecological footprint of a house cat and other ethical dilemmas

For those considering getting a cat or dog there are some very important challenges, ethical dilemmas and potential problems you may want to consider.

Monica -- Do you mean Doggie Dooley? (http://www.doggiedooley.com/) My dad has one and thinks it's the greatest.

We have 8 cats and recycle the cat tray litter. I put it under the paving stones I am laying in the garden ti level them. The cat poo is put into an old wormery and the worms just love it!

Other. Like 3/4's I guess. Her poo does not get composted but her kibble is not only a "little" more expensive, it costs more than our food. And she has lovely natural rubber toys and hemp collar but she's no trendy yuppie puppy - she tried but she's so non-discriminatory.

My pets are naturally environmentally friendly. I have house rabbits who are recycled (from the animal shelter). They are spayed and neutered so they don't contribute to pet overpopulation. I use paper and wood based litter in their litterboxes and it all gets dumped in the composter once a week. It's the optimum ration of carbon (paper/wood litter) and nitrogen (poop and pee). The compost goes into my garden where I grow some of their fresh food. Their diet is 100% vegetarian, hay, green veggies and hay based pelleted food. The veggies I don't grow come from my local farmers market. They are great pets for high density city living.

I have 5 cats. As I understand it, Cats are obligate carnivores. That means they cannot survive on a vegetarian diet. Besides, they were designed to catch and eat meat. I say it is ok for them to eat meat even though I choose not to. I am veggie because I cannot bring myself to kill an animal and eat it. If I cannot kill it myself, I cannot eat it. That is how everyone should operate in my opinioin. Know where your food comes from. My cats have no qualms about killing their food (not that they have to) I say, Let them eat meat!