Citrus-based cleaners are lovely, work well, smell great, and are
environmentally friendly.
 
HOWEVER, please be careful about using them around animals.  They contain
d'limonene, which is *fatally* toxic to rabbits.  We had a long discussion
about this on the rabbit list, where several people have lost rabbits due
to using citrus-based cleaners in their households.
 
The rabbits walked across an almost-dry floor that had been washed with a
citrus cleaner, washed their paws, ingested the d'limonene .. and it killed
them.  I asked at that time on the list whether anyone know if the same
effect was possible in ferrets, and nobody knew.
 
The list moderator for that list, Dana Krempels, is a biology professor at
the University of Miami, and what she told me is that chemical reactions
vary a lot by species.  For instance, chocolate is toxic to dogs, but can
be ingested safely (in reasonable quantities) by humans and other animals.
The same principle might well apply to the d'limonene in citrus cleaners;
it will kill a rabbit, but might be perfectly safe for ferrets and other
animals.  Dana was not aware of any tests of d'limonene done on other
species, so she couldn't answer me more specifically than that.
*Definitely* avoid citrus-based cleaners if your other pet is a rabbit,
though!
 
- Ela
 
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[Moderator's note: For the little they are worth, the LD50 tests on rats
showed only a moderate toxicity.  BIG]
[Posted in FML issue 2326]