Secondhand Pet Gear in Canada: Crates, Beds and Carriers You Can Buy Used

New owners buy a room of gear before the animal has slept in the house. A lot of that gear is a hard object someone else already bought: a crate, a bowl, a carrier, a gate. Some of it should stay in the last house: a chewed toy, a stretched harness, a bed that smells like urine, anything on a recall list. This page is a buy-or-skip list for Canada, a cleaning step that does not invent a dilution, and a mandatory look at Health Canada’s recalls search. No used-market price was opened on 27 Sep 2026. Education only. This is not veterinary advice.

What's usually safe to buy used: crates, bowls, carriers, gates

The workable used purchases are the ones you can see through. A wire or plastic crate with straight bars, a floor that is still attached, and a latch that closes is a crate. A dent is a question. A broken weld or a door that springs open is a no. Stainless bowls and ceramic bowls that are not cracked can be washed. A plastic bowl with deep tooth grooves holds grime in the grooves; skip it if you cannot get the surface smooth. A rigid carrier is reasonable when the latches catch, the vents are open, and the shell is not cracked through. Squeeze the handle. If it flexes like it will let go on a staircase, it is not a carrier. A pressure gate or a hardware-mounted gate is reasonable when the mechanism still locks and you can fit it to your doorway without forcing stripped screws.

Beds are in the title because people ask. They are not in the “usually” sentence with crates. A bed with a cover you can wash, and foam that is not soaked, stained through, or crumbling, can be a used buy. If you cannot wash it, or the foam smells after a wash, skip it. You are not saving the cost of a skin problem. The dog cost guide prints OVMA 2025 lines you can set beside a used price you actually see: crate $178 and bed $78 in the puppy year, collar and leash $55, toys $83. Those are new-item averages on an Ontario sheet, not Kijiji. If a used crate is $40 and intact and not recalled, the gap versus $178 is the saving. If it is recalled, the gap is irrelevant. The supply-list guide says which of these you need on day one.

What to skip: worn harnesses, chewed toys, recalled items

A harness and a collar are fit and stitching. A used one has already stretched to someone else’s dog. You cannot see a weakened stitch the way you can see a bent crate bar. Skip worn harnesses, stretched collars, and leashes with a clip that does not spring back. Buy the thing that fits this animal, new, and replace it when the fit changes. The OVMA puppy line for collar and leash is $55. That is not an order to spend $55. It is a ceiling that makes a $15 new collar, if you find one that fits, an ordinary purchase rather than a place to gamble on a frayed strap.

Chewed toys are a skip. You cannot see whether the missing piece was swallowed by the last dog, and a cracked edge is a mouth injury waiting for the next one. Plush that cannot be washed is a skip. Recalled items are a skip even when they look perfect. The recall is the defect you cannot see from the curb. The emergency vet guide is the visit a swallowed fragment can become. Do not buy the toy to find out.

Cleaning and disinfecting secondhand gear

Wash first. Loose hair, food, and dirt block whatever you use next. Hot water and dish soap, then a rinse, then a dry, is the step this page will stand behind without a lab. If you use a disinfectant, follow the contact time and the surface list on that product’s label, and do not mix it with another chemical. This draft did not open a Health Canada dilution written for pet crates, so it does not print millilitres of bleach per litre of water. A number copied from memory would be an invented recipe. The used-household guide is the general habit for secondhand goods in the house. Use it for the non-pet questions, and still do the pet recall search below.

Fabric that survives a wash can go through the washer on the hottest cycle the label allows. Foam that stays damp will smell again. Carriers and crates need the latch tested after they are dry, not before, because a wet plastic latch can fool you. Bowls should be washed as you would wash a dish you eat from. If the surface is pitted, replace the bowl. The food guide assumes a bowl you trust. A cracked bowl is not a unit-price problem.

Where to look: marketplaces, buy-nothing groups, rescues

In Canada the ordinary places are local online marketplaces, neighbourhood groups, and Buy Nothing groups. The Buy Nothing guide is how those groups work as a household habit. A free crate is still a crate you inspect and still a crate you search. A rescue or shelter sometimes sells or gives away donated supplies. This page did not open a national list of which shelters do that. Phone and ask. Do not assume a donation bin is a shop. Meet in a public place for a marketplace sale, and do not pay for an item you have not opened and latched yourself.

The where-to-buy guide is the new-goods side: shipping minimums, loyalty, and who price-matches. Use it when the used item fails the checklist and you need a new one. The vet-bill guide is not a gear guide. It is the reminder that a cheap toy which becomes an emergency visit was not cheap. No marketplace fee or “average used crate” was opened, so none is printed.

Checking recalls (Health Canada)

Before you pay, and again before the item comes inside, search the brand and the product name on Health Canada’s recalls and safety-alerts site, recalls-rappels.canada.ca. The English homepage, opened 27 Sep 2026, is a search of alerts and recalls across product types, not a pet-only list. Search the words on the label, not the word “crate” alone. If a result matches the item in your hands, do not buy it and do not use it. A seller who says “it was recalled but they fixed those” is not the recall page. Read the recall. The homepage on the day this draft opened it was showing unrelated recent alerts. Those alerts are not evidence that pet gear is, or is not, under recall. Only a search of the item is.

Also look for a missing label. An item with no brand and no model cannot be searched properly. That is a reason to skip it when the category is something an animal sleeps in or rides in, not a reason to “risk it” because the price is low. Report a problem you discover through the same site’s report path if you are the person who finds a hazard. This page does not walk that form.

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