If your soil need more magnesium you can use magnesium chloride. Down in Texas it is sold as Medina Soil Activator. In the north many cities spray it as a deicing spray.

There are several--but none should be directly applied to grasses or they can all damage them. Urea is the safest in that regard as it'll generally be gone by the time the grass wakes up.

CMA (calcium magnesium acetate) is, per reports, good for trouble spots but too expensive to throw around willy-nilly.

Potassium-based salts are rather soil-friendly and also do far less damage to concrete surfaces.

Calcium chloride can also be used. It's a salt, but amounts used are smaller so the chlorine load is smaller, and it doesn't dump sodium into your soil.

Good old fashioned urea at $15 for fifty pounds is a good de-icer on modest ice and near-freezing tempertures; it's ineffective when temperatures are very cold. The nitrogen can, however, cause issues in the environment if it washes into a waterway, so this is definitely not recommended if your home is near a lake, stream, creek, or pond, or if the runoff from your driveway ends up in one. Modest use is generally not a problem.

Sand is generally harmless and can be used to gain traction on icy surfaces.

Thanks Morph, if you had to recommend one online, which one(s) would it be?

Depends, I guess. Under most circumstances, urea. The stuff is really ridiculously harmless, but it won't work in very cold weather.

For that, I'd break down and just use halite. If that absolutely weren't an option, I'd scatter sand over the ice for traction and wait for nature to do the job for me.

I picked up some paw safe stuff for around the house......still need to find something for the bigger driveway area. You think for larger areas the Calcium chloride will be ok to use? I won't be putting anything directly on the grass so its just spill over on the edges that i was "thinking" about but it sounds like I don't really need to be worried about it if you would choose Halite which i've heard is possibly the worst for grass?

In smaller amounts, with due care, halite is actually fine. I do try to avoid any overspill no matter what I'm using.

I certainly wouldn't object to calcium chloride. Sure, the chloride can be problematic, but Cl- doesn't soil bind easily and washes out very easily. The calcium certainly won't be a problem.