Don't Bleach Kongs.

Shortly after acquiring our purple Senior Kong, it rolled off the counter and into the sink. I had been soaking some scary tupperware in bleach water, and didn't find the purple Kong in there until the next morning. I had originally thought that bleaching Kongs was cool, but my purple Kong ended up with white streaks on it that I couldn't rinse or soak off.

Photo by Erin Koski

The Kong Company is pretty cool, so I sent them a message asking whether the purple streaky Kong was still safe to use. The reply I got back was pretty cool, they were happy to hear from me and get some feedback about how their product was doing in the wild.

It turns out that bleaching Kongs is a no-go:

"I would suggest replacing the Senior KONG. The KONG natural rubber, althought it appears smooth, is actually porous and can absorb materials over time. The bleach could have soaked into the rubber and we would not want Brisbane to consume that."

So there is the official word on bleaching Kongs. Happily, my Kong was still covered by the company's 30 day warranty. Standard procedure is to take the damaged toy plus the receipt back to the store where it was purchased and get a refund or exchange it for a bigger/tougher Kong. I ended up sending the purple Kong plus a printout of my Amazon order directly to the Kong Company. It takes a while, but they are sending us a new purple Kong.

Communicating with the Kong Company has been a lot of fun. The person I messaged visited my blog, noted that I do rescue and fostering, and sent me some coupons to get some new Kong for my monsters.