How does baking soda eliminate pet odors?
Sodium bicarbonate won’t eliminate all odors, but it will bond with more volatile fatty acids (a common byproduct of many spoiled foods and fermented plant oils / animal fats ) and convert these acids into more inert and less smelly compounds. This is why storing an open box of baking soda in a fridge or freeze is such a common household practice.
As many of the biological sources of odor contained in urine are fatty acids, such as metabolized proteins and fats, many pheromones, and sex hormones, baking soda can be very effective at eliminating urine based pet odors and can help minimize the risk of pets returning to mark the same spot. Which is handy if you host a lot of pet friends, foster animals or operate a dog friendly photography studio.
So, you can probably appreciate why a cleaning technique that produces baking soda as a natural byproduct of cleaning, might be a helpful alternative to the trace amounts of mustard gas that hydrogen peroxide based techniques might likely produce instead.
Everyone pees, but not all pee is the same
Urine is fairly inconsistent in many ways. There are a lot of different chemicals and compounds that can be found in urine depending on various factors, such as the health and diet of your dog. Many of these differences have a lot to do with why we don’t recommend using hydrogen peroxide to eliminate urine messes and stains.
These variables can vary to such a degree that it can actually impact the PH of your pet’s urine. Your dog’s urine may be a weak acid or a weak base – so you can’t reliably count on a ph based reaction. More over, if a reaction is triggered you really have no idea what by products you will be generating or to what degree. It may have no reaction, it might cause an endothermic reaction and literally burn the material you are intending to clean or generate toxic ammonia gas fumes that could potentially harm you or your pets.
But two components can be found consistently in most urine — ammonia and urea salts.
Ammonia salts sound scary, but are not the same as ammonia gas
As ammonia salts release little ammonia gas (unlike mixing ammonia and vinegar or hydrogen-peroxide), are relatively inert and are highly soluble in water, making for a much easier and safer cleanup when dealing with pet urine.
DIY odor stopper (Neutralizer) skunk,urine, etc… (WORKS FOR ME)
Choosing between hydrogen peroxide and an enzyme cleaner for urine and other foul-smelling stains? Both solutions have a good reputation for handling at least some portion of the mess. But they also have some distinct pros and cons.
To make your decision easier, let’s break down the key points between these two cleaner categories.