Hemp Substrate-whos tried it

[wokka]

Hemp is now being produced in Australia as animal bedding. I use it for rodents and a few friends have tried it for reptiles. As a locally produced highly absorbent natrural product it ticks all the boxes. What experience have others had?

 

[JrFear]

im interested where i can get it!

 

[ArcticMonkey]

It's OK, my only complaint is that it was sold to me as dust free but turned out to be quite dusty. It is still a good product though. I suppose there's no such thing as the perfect substrate.

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It's OK, my only complaint is that it was sold to me as dust free but turned out to be quite dusty. It is still a good product though. I suppose there's no such thing as the perfect substrate.

 

[RedFox]

Sounds good. Where do you get hemp substrate from?

 

[Pauls_Pythons]

Mixed feelings.
Used it for 6 months, easy, looks ok but found the smell to be quite strong. May just have been a bad batch that hadn't been dried properly.

My diamond female who normally eats like a dustbin stopped eating while this was in her enclosure but once I stopped using the stuff she started eating again, wether the hemp was the real cause or not I couldn't/wouldn't say

 

[dozerman]

I tried it but I did NOT inhale:lol:

 

[Harvez]

Bag it up and sell it!!! wewt wewt

 

[Chondrobsessed]

smelly & dusty & and grew mushies

 

[wokka]

The stuff i am using was grown 12 months ago and so by now should be either dry or rotten. I think it is a lot like hay where the quality results from proper harvesting. As an infant industry in Australia, some producers are still learning. A bit of moisture will soon suppress any dust although I haven't found that necessary.

 

[ArcticMonkey]

It's certainly not as dusty as coir peat and I don't think it smells that bad. It certainly looks good.

Re the growth of mushrooms, I don't think it's supposed to be kept wet constantly so is not ideal for species that need high humidity.

 

[andynic07]

smelly & dusty & and grew mushies

Hemp and mushrooms lucky you, haha.

 

[Xeaal]

I have enough issues without adding potentially stoned snakes to the equation lol

 

[spinner_collis]

smelly & dusty & and grew mushies

+1
I'm going back to aspen

 

[Shotta]

just curious how much do you put in the enclosure,like how deep it is?

 

[wokka]

I wonder where the mushies come from as hemp has nothing to do with mushrooms being an upright growing plant.Some mushroom spores must be getting into the equation from somewhere. Are mushrooms bad for reptiles?

 

[Chondrobsessed]

It was the first substrate I used for a new enclosure so I think it must have come from the hemp. The humidity in the enclosure was high but experienced periodic dry outs to 35-40 %. I'm not sure if they are bad as I've seen some photos of tropical set ups with the exact mushies I had, I didn't like the idea of them and they creeped me out lol. I am slowly using the rest in a dry enclosure and keeping spag moss in the humid one.

 

[wokka]

So it seems that the hemp is fine in a normal reptile enclosure but not ideal in high humidity- a little like aspen bedding.