I tried and used the 5-10-5 last winter with success. During the spring thaw, there were a lot of granules left on my driveway and also on the grassy path that I shovel to a side door. They eventually dissolved on their own and nothing anywhere was excessively green nor over grown. Neither was it burned as an excessive amount of fertilizer can do.
I've been having a problem at the street end of my driveway where the snowbanks pile up on either side. Nothing grows there. Even the weeds don't like it. The town does use salt and of course that's where the street snow is piled when I shovel. Plus anything with water in it can become ice at the garage end due to a complete lack of direct sun light at that point and sometimes something is needed there to inhibit the skating rink experience. I have all kinds of things growing around the driveway. Salt use is a very bad idea.
The 5-10-5 eats through the ice, pits it and makes it rough and safe for walking. You can hear the ice start to crack when it is tossed out. It does not have the same kind of ice melting efficiency that rock salt has but it works well enough to accomplish what is needed. If the ice is particularly thick or heavy, I just toss more out there. An extra amount of 5-10-5 isn't going to hurt anything. It gives decent traction for safe walking.
RE Kayla's paws: It doesn't create shards of ice that would cut her feet. I don't know about the granules. They've got to be less harmful in content than all the chemicals that are in the man made, heat producing, so called 'safe' salts that are being sold and used.
I also think it would work better under a spinning tire than cat litter but haven't had the opportunity to try it.
