Had a little thought....

[muffin]

I live in an area of Scotland with soft water, so limescale doesn't bother me. I don't know how the rest of the country puts up with it though! Anyway, after watching an advert on TV for some limescale remover of some sort I thought to myself that limescale is basically calcium, and that piggies in hard water areas are drinking water with higher levels of calcium in it. I already filter my pigs' water to get rid of chlorine etc (boiling and coling their water is actually recommended by some writers) and I thought I would throw my idea out there that maybe filtering piggy water would remove some of the calcium. My worry is that the calcium may contribute to bladder stones. Just a thought.

On a tangent it also occured to me why they tell you to water acid-loving plants with rain water, because most areas have hard, lime rich water. Aha. All is now clear!

[JarBax]

A wee while ago we wondered the same thing - so now I boil and cool our piggy water (the kettle is fitted with a filter too). CavyCoolCrazy and I both noticed that under leaky water bottles, there was a yucky brownish sludge - whhih we reckoned was calcium. Her pigs diet is so low in calcium, there could only have been one explanation to her Charlie's stone - the water!