Winter Fall Prevention

[Adrianne Matzkin]

Since the winter freeze has hit, what do you use to keep the walkway free from ice but safe for the doodles - both their feet and if they lick it off their feet?
Has any heard of Magic Ice?

[F, Calla & Luca]

Oh boy, according to this article the choice is risk breaking a limb, risk your pet's health or constantly sweep he ice melter away after it's worked. Maybe Adrianne will take us all to Florida.

[Kyoko]

http://www.ossian.com/petsafe_doc.htm

[Kyoko]

I think most of it is based with Calcium Chloride( White ballies) . Others are Potassium Chloride, Magnesium Chloride, Calcium magnesium Acetate, etc....

[F, Calla & Luca]

What chemical is in it?

[Karen & Lucy]

We use Calcium, my DH does not like salt of any kind because it destroys your cement. I really do not know how safe that is for doodles. So far no problems.

[Kyoko]

Few years ago, my son did a science project comparing the various ice melting products. ( Rock salt, green crystal like stuff, white pebbles, tiny white balls, etc....I forgot their real, official product names...) The finding was that more chemical based products melt the ice fast in the beginning, but quit working sooner, possibly because it melted the ice quickly, it ended up washing itself away. Plain old rock salt melted ice slow, but kept working for longer period of time. And in a lower temperture environment ( inside of the freezer )chemical based did not do too well. But, in general, all products melted basically the same amount of ice. ( Melt a lot first and quit, or keep melting little by litte) Thing is that rock salt is much corrosive, so it can eventually damage your driveway. He did not compare the pet safe ice melt product, but I would guess the melting productivites should be similar to the ones we used.... but it will be much environmentaly safe and safe for our doodles, I guess!