Just to warn folks that a customer of mine has recently had kidney stones in her horse, dog and Guinea pigs. She lives in an area with hard water. She contacted the local water board and ask how high the calcium was in her area. It is on average 50 something (...I am not sure how they measure addatives in water milli microns I thinks ???). Well hers was 480 just within the permitted level. But they admitted it was really high. When she told the vet he was shocked and put it down to the recent problem she was having with her animals. However the water board would not take responsibility.

The story ends when she now feeds her animals rain water OR bottled water. However you have to be careful as calcium is added to this too and can be quite high.

Just thought I would let people know if they have animals with kidney stones AND live in areas with very hard water. You will know as you kettle and washing machine will be suffering.

We live in a hard water area, and although it is bad for appliances (although my washing machine is still going strong after 18 years), hard water is actually very beneficial to our health.  It is good for our hearts!  So, with that in mind, it is probably good for our pets' hearts too.  Water softeners are bad for health (contrary to what we are led to believe in adverts) because they contain too much sodium, therefore really bad for hearts. 

I feed raw bones, so even more calcium!  Good for bones and teeth though.