Filtered Water?....

[Storm1974]

Ok, so I give my pigs Lidl 'Natural Source' mineral water, which they actually barely seem to drink that much of (Though Bramble has been drinking more of it since I've put it in a bowl as apposed to a water bottle!), but obviously being mineral water, it still has some calcium in it (Though a LOT less than in our tap water, which is really high in calcium!) and I keep seeing on here that we should be giving our piggies 'filtered' water, especially to help prevent bladder stones, so by 'filtered' do you mean natural, clean water that's not from a tap?

I thought that filtering water, using a Brita filter or something similar, is only going to get rid of impurities and not the actual minerals in the water?

 

[Piggies&buns]

The recommended method is to use a brita (or similar) filter.
It’s more complicated than it simply removing calcium - as I understand it, that’s not possible as the particles are too small to be caught or something like that - but filtering helps to reduce carbonate hardness.

 

[Storm1974]

The recommended method is to use a brita (or similar) filter.
It’s more complicated than it simply removing calcium - as I understand it, that’s not possible as the particles are too small to be caught or something like that - but filtering helps to reduce carbonate hardness.

Oh, ok thanks for that.

So do you think giving them the mineral water is ok? It says it's 40mgs calcium per litre and 14mgs magnesium (Mag should ideally should be higher than the calcium, but hard to find in mineral water!). We can't really afford a water filter and the filters seem to be expensive.

Luckily they don't seem to drink a lot of water, think they get most from their wet food and grass.

 

[Piggies&buns]

Oh, ok thanks for that.

So do you think giving them the mineral water is ok? It says it's 40mgs calcium per litre and 14mgs magnesium (Mag should ideally should be higher than the calcium, but hard to find in mineral water!). We can't really afford a water filter and the filters seem to be expensive.

Luckily they don't seem to drink a lot of water, think they get most from their wet food and grass.

It’s going to come down to you doing research and comparisons on your local area water and the bottled. I know I'm not scientifically minded enough to be able to go through that!

There are cheaper versions and when you consider how long a filter lasts, they don’t always work out expensive. I wonder whether buying the bottled water would actually work out more?
I'm not sure on costs though as I have a kitchen tap which is a 3 in 1 (boiling, hot and cold) and has filters fitted to it. (the replacement filters for that are expensive but last around 6-9 months, we’d be doing it anyway whether I had the animals or not)

 

[Piggies&buns]

This is what our drinking guide says about bottled water - All About Drinking And Bottles

 

[Storm1974]

It’s going to come down to you doing research and comparisons on your local area water and the bottled. I know I'm not scientifically minded enough to be able to go through that!

There are cheaper versions and when you consider how long a filter lasts, they don’t always work out expensive. I wonder whether buying the bottled water would actually work out more?
I'm not sure on costs though as I have a kitchen tap which is a 3 in 1 (boiling, hot and cold) and has filters fitted to it. (the replacement filters for that are expensive but last around 6-9 months, we’d be doing it anyway whether I had the animals or not)

Thanks, have just ordered one of these for £30...

Zero Water 10-Cup / 2.4 Litre Ready Pour Jug With Advanced 5 Stage Filter 188781000997 | eBay

 

[Storm1974]

Forgot to add, we had already looked up our local water and it was extremely high in calcium, hence why we started using mineral water!

Here are the results for our area:

• Calcium (mg/l)73.28
• Calcium Carbonate (mg/l)197.1
• Calcium Carbonate (mmol/l)1.97

 

[eileen]

I filter my water twice.once in a brita filter kettle.again through a brita jug filter.a member of the forum wrote her/his on filtering water more than once !