Animal Welfare Professionals

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How does your shelter clean hard dog and cat toys?  We have a dishwasher/sanitizing machine, but I know that gets to a high temperature.  Most of the hard toys seem to say not to dishwash as a result.  We currently handle hard toys by soaking in bleach and dish soap.  We use a lot of Nylabones.  

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This message was posted by a user wishing to remain anonymous

I would never use bleach.  It's too caustic.  Try spraying them with Rescue and rinse well in hot water.

We spray toys with Rescue and rinse with hot water. This cleans them well and isn't toxic. We also soak toys in a bucket of diluted rescue if they really need a cleaning.

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Stefanie Schmidt
Animal Welfare Specialist
Hearts Alive Village
NV
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For nylabones and hard non-porous toys: 1/4 cup of bleach per gallon of water. Soak overnight. Bleach breaks down into water and salt and the 1:100 dilution listed here is the same level of dilution used to purify drinking water in an emergency situation. It is perfectly safe, cheap, and doesn't require rinsing of chemicals that are dangerous to ingest.

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Matt Montes, CBCC-KA
Behavior and Training Specialist
Rancho Coastal Humane Society
Encinitas CA
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We used to use a bleach solution but found that no-matter how much they were rinsed, the dogs did not like the taste of them. Currently our procedure is the same as with our bowls. They are put into a sink full of hot soapy water, scrubbed, rinsed, sprayed with rescue, wait 10 minutes, then rinse and air dry before putting away.

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Kathleen Griffin
Licking County Humane Society
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