I'm sorry; I didn't mean to imply that anyone should be sticking tea tree
and/or lavender directly ON their pets!  Even in humans, these two essential
oils are GENERALLY used in diluted form on the skin, and only occassionally
(and in very small quantities) used in neat (undiluted) form.  You can
injure yourself with either one of these if you use it on large areas of
your skin undiluted.  (Luckily the price alone - generally about $8 - $10
*per ounce* would probably be enough alone to deter you from doing that!)
 
A tea tree/lavender cage cleaner, though, should have only minute
quantities of these oils.  A little goes a long way with essential oils ..
and the high prices of the oils (due to the low volume of the production
methods) would pretty much ensure that the manufacturer wouldn't add much,
in the first place.
 
The safe ratio for lavender/tea tree oils (as I add them to my facial
soaps), btw.  is about 10 drops of the two oils *combined*, per ounce of
soap.  That's about 10 drops of oil for a bar of soap that will last you at
least 50 hand washings.  I'd expect about the same ratio (or less) in the
commercial cage cleanser.
 
- Ela
 
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[Posted in FML issue 2329]