
Many parents are looking for fun ways to keep the kids entertained at home. Whether you need a boredom buster or a homeschooling art project, homemade slime (or “goop”) is easy to make and fun for the kids to play with. There are a lot of recipe variations for homemade slime to make glitter slime, glow in the dark slime, fluffy slime, and countless other types of slime! Be cautious though – the downside is that many common ingredients used in homemade slime are toxic to pets. Here is a list of the more common toxic ingredients, as well as the effects they have on our pets:
1. Laundry Detergent
- Causes stomach upset, nausea, and vomiting.
- If a pet vomits up laundry detergent, they may accidentally breathe in both the vomit and the detergent. The detergent can then cause aspiration pneumonitis which leads to difficulty breathing.
2. Borax
- Commonly found in slime, ant traps, and cleaning products.
- In small quantities, causes stomach upset and vomiting.
- In large quantities, causes kidney injury.

3. Table Salt
- In craft products, table salt is commonly found in homemade slime, homemade playdough, and salt dough decorations.
- Pets are very sensitive to high levels of salt.
- Causes elevated sodium in the blood. Depending on the amount eaten, the high sodium in the blood can cause a range of symptoms such as stomach upset, lethargy, seizures, tremors, coma, or death.
- Note: Some slime recipes call for Epsom salt instead of table salt. This still causes elevated blood sodium levels.
4. Saline Contact Lens Solutions
- Contains saline which contains salt.
- Like salt, causes elevated sodium in the blood.
- Depending on other ingredients in the solution, stomach upset is also possible.


