Is your yard causing a red & itchy belly??

We love the outdoors and most of us love to potter in the garden or create landscaping delights with colourful plants. Sometimes we fill up spaces with easy care plants that multiply and look nice, but are we choosing the right plants for our pets health?

While there are lots of toxic plants that can cause our pets harm if they digest them, we also need to think about what might make them itchy, red and irritated if they come in contact with them.

Unfortunately some of the most common landscaping plants used in Australia also cause our furry companions to suffer from uncomfortable red/pink skin, irritation, the dreaded constant itch, and other skin problems and health impacts.

Some of the main culprits are:

Tradescantia zebrina - Zebrina, Spiderwort, Inch plant, Wandering Jew

Tradescantia pallida purpurea - Purple Wandering Jew, Spiderwort, Purple Heart

Tradescantia spathacea - Moses In The Cradle, Rhoeo, Boatlily, Moses in the Boat 

Tradescantia fluminensis - Wandering Trad, Small Leaf Spiderwort

Callisia repens - Turtle Vine, Creeping Inch Plant, Creeping Turtle Vine

Commelina cyanea - Scurvy Weed

Moses in the cradle

If you have these plants listed or pictured above, the best advice is to remove all traces of them. it is not worth the suffering of your pets to have these in any areas where they may have access, because even minimal contact can cause them problems.

It's also interesting to note that some of these plants that are easy to propagate, spread prolifically and don't require much love from us, cause havoc in our environment too! There are lots of alternatives that are much safer for pets and kinder to the ecosystem.

If you need help identifying plants in your garden that might be unfriendly to your pets, or are looking for suggestions for alternatives to plant, get in touch and we can help.

Contact us today!