Salt licks?

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mrs.dotcotton

I am new to the guinea pig world. Just wondering ... are salt licks okay to give guinea pigs? They were recommended to me but I wanted to double check...
 
They are not at all necessary! I have never given mine salt licks :)
 
Welcome to the forum Mrs Dot Cotton. :)

Guinea pigs get everything they need from a good varied diet of hay, fresh fruit and veg and a high quality dry feed. Nothing else is necessary - no salt licks, commercial treats, or vitamin supplements. (Vitamin C supplements are good when a piggie is ill, but not needed if on a healthy diet)
 
Great - thanks so much!

A couple of more naive questions:

Our pigs have a a log bridge - they are eating the bark - is this okay?

They love an occasional piece of honeydew melon but as I tend to get carried away and treat them like real babies I take off the skin - should I leave it on?

I read that sweet potato was okay - again, raw with skin?

Thanks again - it's great to be able to get advice on these things!
 
It's fine that they are chewing away on the log bridge, provided they have lots of hay that they are actually eating as well then eating a bit of the log bridge shouldn't cause any trouble!

I tend to remove the rinds of melons as well, I know watermelon rind goes down well but not sure about honeydew. Until someone says they have experience of feeding honeydew rind best not to feed it.

Raw sweet potato is fine as a treat, no skin though. :)
 
Ha ha, I know what you mean. I mother my 2 too much as well and cut the skins off everything. It has even came to the point where if I feed them something that hasn't been finely chopped, they turn their noses up at it :))
 
Haha Claire - I've had to remind myself that they do indeed have teeth and can handle chunks of food! As my children (ages 12, 9 and 3) no longer need/want as much doting as they once did it's nice to have the two furry members of the family to fill the void!

Thanks you both for your responses!
 
Mine love the very occasional bit of galia melon rind. But I make sure I scrub the rind beforehand.

I had one that was in piggy ecstacy over melon rind... So you can guess what her Christmas present was!
 
Claire W said:
Ha ha, I know what you mean. I mother my 2 too much as well and cut the skins off everything. It has even came to the point where if I feed them something that hasn't been finely chopped, they turn their noses up at it :))
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We're the same - we buy organic carrots for example and give the pigs those - when the supermarket were out of them one week we bought regular carrots and many of the pigs just picked at them, we couldn't believe it!

I give ours honeydew with a bit of the rind (rinsed, as is all our veg) apparently it's okay, but I heard watermelon itself should only be given rarely, but don't know why.
 
boureki said:
We're the same - we buy organic carrots for example and give the pigs those - when the supermarket were out of them one week we bought regular carrots and many of the pigs just picked at them, we couldn't believe it!

I give ours honeydew with a bit of the rind (rinsed, as is all our veg) apparently it's okay, but I heard watermelon itself should only be given rarely, but don't know why.
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Its funny the lengths we go to make our pigs happy :))
 
Definately a bit of a gimic and waste of money.

The only piggies I have ever known use one was my dads who were terrible selective feeders. I got him to change them to pellets and they no-longer use it. Guess they were lacking something because of their diet.

I don't cut the rind off honeydew melon and have never had a problem, they don't always eat it though. Sometimes they just eat the fruit and leave it.
 
ok i have to agree with claire,my piggys will not eat much unless its cut into perfect small cubes but i wouldn't have it any other way i feel like such a good piggy mum doing those little things they like,i also never give rinds purely because i think the insides sound much yummier,
regarding boureki's post about watermelon i have heard the same thing and i can only put it down to the fact that it is packed with water just like iceberg lettuce and not a whole lot of nutrients,ordinarily my piggies get it maybe once a fortnight when its in season excluding Boris of course that was using it for a source of water when he wouldnt take water any other way xxxxxx
salt licks are very overrated by petshops,my sister use to use them for hers and they hated itxxxx
 
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