salt

[bubba man]

can i put a salt spool in the hutch ??

 

[michaels4gardens]

Not to discourage you from asking questions of all of us here on this forum, ... - but ...- I would recommend that you do a little research on your own... this simple question would be answered in almost any basic rabbit raising handbook. I would suggest that you get yourself a good Rabbit handbook, and read it.. This place is one of the very few places on the internet , that is "policed" and answers are usually checked , and dealt with by experienced rabbit people. Be careful asking questions on other sites, and especially on facebook. A lot of damage has been done to rabbits by "just asking people on the internet".
With that said .. in answer to your question-- salt should be offered to rabbits that are not being fed rabbit pellets.

 

[MaggieJ]

When Michael says we are "policed" I think he means that errors in advice are generally caught by members and an alternate view put forward. The Moderators and Admins have more powers, but RT has such a well-informed and well-mannered membership, that it is very rare for one of us to have to use them.

I agree -- get and read a good rabbit handbook and then ask questions about things that puzzle you or that are not covered in the book. Most of what we deal with is troubleshooting specific issues and problems.

If cost of the books is an issue, you can buy second-hand. I like to use abebooks.com . . . the prices are usually very reasonable and sometimes shipping within the US is free.

:good-luck:

 

[michaels4gardens]

When Michael says we are "policed" I think he means that errors in advice are generally caught by members and an alternate view put forward. The Moderators and Admins have more powers, but RT has such a well-informed and well-mannered membership, that it is very rare for one of us to have to use them.

I agree -- get and read a good rabbit handbook and then ask questions about things that puzzle you or that are not covered in the book. Most of what we deal with is troubleshooting specific issues and problems.

If cost of the books is an issue, you can buy second-hand. I like to use abebooks.com . . . the prices are usually very reasonable and sometimes shipping within the US is free.

:good-luck:

yes, that is a better way of saying what I meant...

 

[akane]

Animals rarely need straight salt added to their diet. White salt licks are generally useless except sometimes to animals on pasture with limited feed options. Even then they are better off with trace mineral salt licks. I have used himalayan salt that is much higher in minerals for rabbits and horse mineral blocks that are the softer kind rather than the mostly salt ones. I don't use regular salt licks for anything on any diet.

 

[michaels4gardens]

Salt helps absorption of dietary nutrients, and is especially important in low protein diets .

EFFECT OF DIETARY SODIUM ON DIGESTIBILITY OF NUTRIENTS AND
PERFORMANCE IN GROWING RABBITS
Quote" It is worldwide accepted that sodium is involved in the regulation of pH and osmotic pressure in the
cells. Sodium content of the diet is also essential for the absorption of luminal nutrients as glucose
and amino acids (Schultz and Zalusky, 1964 and 1965), which are transported across the brush border
membrane of the intestinal epithelial cell by several systems that require sodium as a cotransport." end quote.

https://riunet.upv.es/bitstream/handle/ ... 1-1-SM.pdf

The results of our experiment indicate that is possible to reduce the present dietary sodium
recommendations for fattening rabbits to 1.6 g/kg DM during the first two weeks after weaning,
without impairing either the fattening performances or the ileal digestibility of DM and CP. In addition,
this study indicates that the level of sodium in the diet affects the gut absorption of methionine and
cystine and several non essential AA.

 

[akane]

Adding a pure salt source is rarely necessary though. As I said when you have animals on straight pasture sometimes a supplemental source is needed and that would apply to some all fresh food diets but pure salt still isn't usually the best choice. Certainly not in uncontrolled amounts that a salt lick would provide. Livestock will start eating dirt for the combination of mineral salts and not just sodium. A very low mineral source will lead to eating excess salt in an attempt to acquire minerals first. That's why I offer himalayan salt, loose minerals, electrolyte powders, or soft mineral blocks rather than higher salt hard trace mineral blocks and I never use white salt licks. My veterinary classes and numerous things I've read have pointed out that sodium by itself is rarely as useful while mineral deficiencies are a lot more common than only the presence of low sodium. Even for my own health I use salt that has bound minerals and add 1-3 drops of lugol's iodine 2% to something at some point in the day rather than ever buying iodized table salt for eating or cooking.

 

[michaels4gardens]

Adding a pure salt source is rarely necessary though. As I said when you have animals on straight pasture sometimes a supplemental source is needed and that would apply to some all fresh food diets but pure salt still isn't usually the best choice. Certainly not in uncontrolled amounts that a salt lick would provide. Livestock will start eating dirt for the combination of mineral salts and not just sodium. A very low mineral source will lead to eating excess salt in an attempt to acquire minerals first. That's why I offer himalayan salt, loose minerals, electrolyte powders, or soft mineral blocks rather than higher salt hard trace mineral blocks and I never use white salt licks. My veterinary classes and numerous things I've read have pointed out that sodium by itself is rarely as useful while mineral deficiencies are a lot more common than only the presence of low sodium. Even for my own health I use salt that has bound minerals and add 1-3 drops of lugol's iodine 2% to something at some point in the day rather than ever buying iodized table salt for eating or cooking.

I don't disagree, "pure white salt ,is not usually the best choice"...
-- when feeding rabbits on what I can grow... I offer "sheep mineral" supplement [has some salt] at all times to my rabbits, .. sometimes they eat a lot, sometimes they barely touch any for weeks... however.. offering the "sheep mineral / salt supplement" makes a huge difference in growth rates, litter size and overall health.. salt alone, did not work as well as the minerals with salt .. but it worked much better than no salt..

 

[Nymphadora]

I think everyone else so far has made excellent points, I just wanted to pop in to mention that I've offered my herd the Himalayan salt blocks as well, and they seem to quite like them. I do feed a complete pellet, but in the wintertime it's very dry in the high desert where we live, so I feel the salt encourages them to drink more water. And I preferred a salt that also contained extra minerals, hence the Himalayan salt blocks. I just got a big chunk from the feed store (they sell them for horses) and chipped off a couple smaller chunks, so it's not very expensive.

Another suggestion for you, bubba man: If you have a question, try using the search bar in the appropriate forums for your topic of research... sometimes you can find some great advice that's been given a number of times in the past (it really helped me when I started here)!

 

[GBov]

How long does the Himalayan salt last in cages? I tried the red salt blocks a few years ago and they just melted away in our humidity, even the big bits were gone in a few days.

 

[Nymphadora]

How long does the Himalayan salt last in cages? I tried the red salt blocks a few years ago and they just melted away in our humidity, even the big bits were gone in a few days.

Hmm... I'll have to check the chunks I added for our buns, but I think they all still have at least some portions left, even in the grow-out cages. And I only gave them a chunk that was about 2" round and 1/2" thick in each cage. That was early/mid-December, I think. So they're not going through them all that fast... but our humidity is also a lot lower than yours, GBov.

 

[michaels4gardens]

How long does the Himalayan salt last in cages? I tried the red salt blocks a few years ago and they just melted away in our humidity, even the big bits were gone in a few days.

when I used Himalayan salt in Orange Springs, Fl. , it lasted about twice the amount of time as my sheep mineral block pieces. But ...- I think that was due to the rabbits consuming more minerals with salt, than the salt with minerals ... i still had to add new pieces of salt , or mineral + salt, every month or two. In the "Southwest" US, ... it lasted more than twice as long- as it does melt away, when the humidity just sits for weeks near 100% ... In Florida, the salt was harder on the cage floor beneath salt holder, also.
.. Just another reason I switched to 1/2" EMT [electrical conduit] flooring, the pieces of conduit can be replaced if they ever go bad, without replacing the entire floor...

 

[GBov]

The salt ATE my floors, I had to put new patches in most of my cages. :evil:

I have been wondering about redoing the floors with the conduit but then again, I have been wondering about going to much larger cages full stop.

But I think I will give them salt rocks again, perhaps if I put in a holder like I have for hay it might work and if it eats it, well, no great harm.

 

[MaggieJ]

I used the red salt/mineral blocks, just knocking off a chunk as needed. When my rabbits were in cages, I put the chunk in one of those straight-sided ramekins from the dollar store. They were two or three for a dollar in those days. Because the ramekins have a flat bottom and straight sides, it was unusual for the rabbits to knock them over -- and even if they did now and again, I'd fix it when I fed them. No damage to the cage wire that I could see.

I realize some of you are dealing with extreme humidity, but at least the salt would be contained and still accessible to the buns.

 

[GBov]

I used the red salt/mineral blocks, just knocking off a chunk as needed. When my rabbits were in cages, I put the chunk in one of those straight-sided ramekins from the dollar store. They were two or three for a dollar in those days. Because the ramekins have a flat bottom and straight sides, it was unusual for the rabbits to knock them over -- and even if they did now and again, I'd fix it when I fed them. No damage to the cage wire that I could see.

I realize some of you are dealing with extreme humidity, but at least the salt would be contained and still accessible to the buns.

Things that make you go "Duh, why didn't I think of that?" :lol: