Sick of Fleas? Here’s What You Need to Know to Get Rid of Them Naturally!
Fleas can feel like one of the most frustrating seasonal challenges for pet parents. But if you’re committed to caring for your animals naturally — without chemical treatments, toxic sprays, or harsh shampoos — you might wonder what you can safely do when fleas show up.
In this post, I’ll walk you through a simple, natural, step-by-step approach to help your dogs and cats through flea challenges, even if you’re facing a full infestation.
Why Avoid Conventional Flea Treatments?
Most traditional flea treatments, whether topical medications, oral tablets, or chemical sprays, are loaded with neurotoxins. These can cause severe side effects, including seizures, tremors, and even cancer in both dogs and cats.
Most conventional flea treatments are pesticides, which are poisonous substances designed to kill small creatures. Any substance that is a poison capable of killing a small creature quickly, also kills larger creatures, like our cats and dogs, and ourselves, just more slowly.
Spraying poisons around your house doesn’t just put your pets at risk — it puts you and your family at risk, too.
So, what’s the best way to handle fleas without bringing harmful products into my animals’ lives or environment?
Step 1: Improve the Diet
First, understand that a healthy body is naturally less attractive to parasites.
When dogs and cats eat a biologically inappropriate diet (like kibble or heavily processed commercial foods), their skin produces excess cellular waste, which makes them more appealing to fleas.
Switching to a natural, species-appropriate diet improves skin health, strengthens the immune system, and reduces the chances of flea infestations — though it won’t eliminate fleas entirely. Even wild animals get fleas! But a good diet makes your pet less of a target.
Get our Natural Dog Diet Quickstart Guide here: https://www.therawkey.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Natural-Dog-Diet-Quick-Start-Guide.pdf
and our Natural Cat Diet Guide here: https://www.therawkey.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Natural-Cat-Diet-Quick-Start-Guide-March-2023.pdf
Step 2: Use a Flea Comb
A bit tedious but truly the most effective tool in your flea fighting arsenal is the humble flea comb. If you catch the problem early — maybe you spot a few fleas or notice your dog scratching occasionally — the simplest, safest tool is a flea comb.
Here’s how to use it:
- Sit with your dog or cat and run the comb carefully through their fur.
- Focus especially on areas where fleas like to hide: around the face and neck, under the armpits, along the back near the tail, and around the hips.
- Have a dish of soapy water nearby, and after each pass, dip the comb into the soapy water to knock off and drown any fleas you catch.
If you stay consistent, combing once or twice daily for a week can often knock out a minor flea problem before it becomes an infestation.
Step 3: Bathing (Only When Necessary)
If your pet already has multiple fleas or is itching and scratching constantly, you’ll probably need to add a bath.
Important tips for flea baths:
- Use a simple, non-toxic soap like plain coconut soap or Castile soap. Avoid shampoos with essential oils, fragrances, or harsh ingredients like sodium lauryl sulfate. Essential oils may seem harmless, but they are concentrated plant poisons that can cause severe symptoms in both cats and dogs.
- Apply the soap thickly, working up a heavy lather, and cover the entire body, especially the face, armpits, and base of the tail.
- Leave the lather on for at least 5 minutes before rinsing. Spend those 5 minutes giving your companion a nice relaxing massage and telling them how handsome or beautiful they look today! Then rinse very thoroughly.
- Repeat the process: lather a second time, leave for 5 minutes, then rinse again. It’s important to do the second round to get any fleas that might have been missed on the first pass. Do a thorough job the first time to avoid having to do a second, third and fourth bath! A few extra minutes in the tub will save you hours of work getting fleas out of your home.
Be aware that too many baths can dry out your pet’s skin, making them even more uncomfortable. That’s why you want to be thorough when you bathe — it’s better to do one or two very effective baths than multiple weaker ones.
Step 4: Daily Combing After Bathing
Once you’ve bathed your pet, continue with daily flea combing for at least a week.
Even just a few minutes a day helps catch any stragglers before they can lay eggs and restart the cycle.
Step 5: Carefully Use Natural Flea Collars (If Needed)
If you have multiple pets or a severe infestation, you can consider using essential oil–based flea collars — with caution.
While essential oils can be toxic to pets (especially cats) if applied directly or diffused into the air, collars with small, controlled amounts embedded in the material can help repel fleas short-term.
Safety tips:
- Use essential oil flea collars only during active infestations, not year-round.
- Monitor your pet for any signs of sensitivity, such as drooling, scratching, skin irritation, or behavior changes like agitation. If your pet starts to develop any symptoms immediately remove the collar and give them fresh air and a bath if needed to remove the essential oils from their fur.
- Never use essential oil sprays, drops, or diffusers around pets, as they can cause serious health problems.
Step 6: Treat the Environment
This is the step most people skip — and why their flea problem keeps coming back.
Fleas lay tiny eggs everywhere your pet walks, especially in carpets, rugs, beds, and furniture. These eggs can hatch weeks later, creating a whole new wave of fleas, even if you’ve already cleared them off your pet.
Best tool: Steam.
- Use a carpet steamer or small cleaning steamer to treat dog beds, couches, carpets, curtains, and baseboards.
- Steam penetrates fabrics and kills flea eggs far more effectively than vacuuming alone.
While daily vacuuming can help, it’s often not enough — even vacuuming multiple times a day may miss eggs hidden deep in fabrics. Steam, on the other hand, breaks the flea life cycle and prevents reinfestation.
Recommended Products
Here is what I use for my rescues!
Coconut soap -> https://amzn.to/4dANAsT or Castile soap → https://amzn.to/3SfOmlg
High-quality flea comb → https://amzn.to/4jmPFdl
Essential oil–based flea collar (use cautiously) →
For Cats -> https://amzn.to/4k2ZDBA
For Small Dogs -> https://amzn.to/4dvP5sp
For Large Dogs -> https://amzn.to/43d7I0F
Flea traps – https://amzn.to/46Pymg8
Carpet steamer (for large jobs) -> https://amzn.to/4jfARNl
or fabric steamer (for small jobs) → https://amzn.to/46PYTKd
While I prefer not to use essential oils because of their risks, there are some times when the flea infestation is strong enough to require essential oils to get the situation under control in the short term. Always use with caution. Never use on a sick pet. Never give essential oils internally. Never use a diffuser with essential oils around your pets. Always check all essential oils for safety before using, as many are highly toxic to cats and dogs. Cats are more sensitive than dogs. Never place undiluted essential oils on your pet’s skin. Only use essential oils sprays that specifically are labeled for use with cats and dogs, but remember, just because it says it is safe on the bottle, does not mean it is healthy, it just means the product is unlikely to cause major, catastrophic symptoms in most cats or dogs!
The following items should only be used for the shortest period possible to get a difficult flea situation under control:
- Flea Shampoo with essential oils – https://amzn.to/3YgoVRn
- Essential oil-based flea spray – https://amzn.to/3SPsspy
- Very strong flea spray – use only in extreme cases, take all pets out of the home, spray house thoroughly to kill fleas, then open windows and air out several hours before returning with your pets. – Vet’s Best Flea and Tick Home Spray – https://amzn.to/44UULtK
- Diatomaceous earth – https://amzn.to/3YfUlr8
- It’s best not to apply either of these directly on your cat or dog unless you’re dealing with a severe infestation that hasn’t responded to bathing. Instead, use them on dog beds, blankets, and carpets where fleas gather. Essential oils are plant toxins — their ability to kill small insects like fleas shows they are toxic — so use them sparingly and only as a last resort. Diatomaceous earth can irritate the lungs and eyes, so apply it carefully. Let the dust settle before allowing pets back into the room, and wear a mask and eye protection when using it.
Final Thoughts
While fleas are a natural part of life — and even the healthiest pets will encounter them — they don’t have to take over your home or make your pets miserable.
By combining the natural diet your companion is designed to thrive on with simple mechanical tools like combs, careful use of natural products, and targeted home cleaning, you can keep fleas under control without resorting to toxic chemicals.
If you found this helpful, be sure to check out my other posts and videos on natural pet care, and let me know in the comments if you have any favorite flea-fighting tips!
