The Hagen Living World Salt Lick Block is a 77 gram mineral block that clips onto the crossbars of a small animal cage. Hagen offer it for hamsters, guinea pigs and dwarf rabbits. It is a cheap and long-lasting bit of enrichment -- do read the note below on whether your pet needs one at all, because the honest answer for a well-fed rabbit or guinea pig is often no.

Key Features

• Size: A 77 gram block, the larger of the two in the range
• Clips To The Bars: Fixes to the crossbars of a small animal home, so it stays out of the bedding and out of the droppings
• Lasts A Long Time: Most small pets work at a block occasionally rather than steadily, and one block commonly lasts months
• Something To Gnaw: The clearest benefit is occupation -- a hard thing to work at, in a cage that is otherwise short of them
• For: Hamsters, guinea pigs, dwarf rabbits and similar small animals

Does A Small Pet Need A Salt Lick?

Usually not. A rabbit or guinea pig eating good hay, fresh greens and a measured amount of a complete pellet is already getting the sodium and the minerals it needs, and most rabbit welfare guidance treats salt and mineral licks as unnecessary rather than harmful. Nor does licking a block do much for teeth -- hay and grass are what grind them down. Where a lick earns its place is as enrichment and as something to gnaw, and in a hamster or gerbil kept on a seed mix where the diet is harder to balance. If your pet goes at it constantly, or you notice it drinking far more than usual, take it out and mention it to a vet.

Hay Is The Main Food, Not The Bedding

Grass hay should make up the bulk of what a rabbit or guinea pig eats -- the usual figure given is around eighty per cent -- and it should be in front of them all day. It is what keeps the gut moving and what actually wears the back teeth down, since those teeth grow continuously. A pet that fills up on pellets instead ends up with dental disease and a slow gut. Keeping hay off the cage floor in a rack or feeder is worth doing for one plain reason: hay a pet has sat on or urinated on gets wasted rather than eaten.

Who Makes It

Living World is the small animal and bird brand of Rolf C. Hagen, the Montreal company founded in 1955. The range covers cages, hay feeders, houses, dishes and supplements for rabbits, guinea pigs, hamsters and cage birds.

Good To Know

• Guinea pigs cannot make their own vitamin C and need it daily from fresh food or a guinea-pig pellet. A mineral lick does not provide it.
• Take it out if your pet goes at it obsessively, and check it is drinking normally. Heavy salt intake makes an animal drink more.
• Keep it clear of the water bottle. A wet block crumbles and goes mouldy.
• A rabbit or guinea pig that stops eating, stops passing droppings or sits hunched and still is an emergency, not a wait-and-see. A gut that stalls can kill within a day.