Things You Can Do With Used Pet Fur

 

    After your dog or cat no longer needs its hair and sheds it all over the place, what can you do except vacuum it up and throw it in the trash? You'll be surprised to know that there are several good uses for it.
     The California-based nonprofit Matter of Trust accepts donations of both pet and human hair. Hair clippings of hair from salons, fur from pet groomers, etc. is stuffed into hosiery and made into “booms” that are dispatched to polluted waters. They also produce felted hair mats for public works departments to use in storm drains and coordinate with large-scale clean water efforts that need stuffed sausage-shaped hair booms.
    For hundreds, maybe thousands of years, people have been making yarn out of pet hair and it can also be used as pillow stuffing. Interested? See this article: How to Spin Pet Fur Into Yarn at the Craftsy website. Cats love toys made out of their own fur. Watch THIS video.
     Pet hair is rich in nitrogen so it works wonders on your soil. Because hair takes so long to decompose, your best bet is to cut the hair into smaller strands before adding it to your compost bin, or skipping the compost all together and adding it straight to the soil.
     Birds love it for building nests. Put a basket full of hair in the yard along with twigs, pine needles, and strips of bark and the birds will love you. Just don't use hair from pets that have been treated for fleas and ticks with sprays, powers or other products.
     Slugs and snails eating your garden produce? Sprinkle pet hair around your plants. This can also work for bigger pests like gophers, rabbits, raccoons, chipmunks, deer and other critters.
     Does working with dog or cat hair sound gross? You may already own stuff made out of it! Got any clothes made from is “chiengora”? Chien is French for “dog” and jackets, vests, scarves, hats sweaters, slippers, neckties, mittens, baskets, miniature toy animals and some yarn have been made out of dog fur.