Salt?

[Nemehoto]

My babies have been licking my arms the last few days. ( I get sweaty working around the farm) I bought a small animal salt wheel today (my babies are 8.5 weeks old) and they went wild over it. I took it away after a few minutes since if they are salt hungry they can do themselves harm eating too much... is this safe for them?

I looked at the healthy squirrel diet sticky post and it didn't say anything about salt

[CritterMom]

NO small animal needs that - it is one of those things that are in pet stores (like little cans of poison to hang in bird cages for "mites") that just shouldn't be there. They get plenty of sodium, unless they have diarrhea or vomiting that causes sudden dehydration, in their normal diet. Pitch that thing!

If you look a little further down the aisle, though, you will find little shapes - they make some that look like ice cream cones - that are made of calcium. Those are great! They chew for ages, eat what they need, crumble and make a mess with the rest!

[Nemehoto]

Ok I was just concerned as we have to supplement salt to all our other animals on the farm, (except the dogs and cats), and the wild squirrels occasionally go in our mule's salt bucket.

I didn't leave it in the cage, I just let them lick it a little when they were on out of cage time. I actually hadn't thought about salt at all for them until they really started licking the sweat off my arms. I thought I should ask before I did something stupid and gave them free access to it.

[jbtartell]

That is good never be afraid to ask anything no matter haw big or small or how it might sound.. Always better safe then sorry:thumbsup