Hemp brands bedding experiences?

[Markpd]

After reading and discussing about various beddings here and elsewhere, I thought I'd give Hemp a go (along with hay).

Atm I'm looking at maybe getting Hugro hemp bedding from Zooplus, £20 for 10kg/100lts, which although it's more expensive than their Hemparade (Siccofloor) @£20 for 14kg/150lts, it has better reviews than the latter.

Another option is Hempbed (with no Eucalyptus) 15Kg/135L from ebay for £20, a better deal, but no reviews there, the (available, 15/29) Amazon reviews have 4 out 15 saying they got dusty bales, the rest say it's good.

So have any of you guys tried Hemp? Which brand(s)? What were they like? Where did you get it from?

Oh btw, I'm in the UK.

[Markpd]

An update on this, I bought Hempbed in the end (£19.65 for 15 kgs), I used about 3/4 of it on the 1st fill! Lol, gave about 9" (~23cm) to burrow into for the digging end (which was ~85cm long at the time, tank is 50cm wide). Their was some dust coming out, but bearing in mind how much I poured in I don't think it was too bad at all. I've had my babies for 2 weeks now, and I can at least say they are able to dig decent burrows in it , even before they really managed to mix any hay or card into it (I did pack it down a bit). And they don't seem to be having any eyes or nose issues to date .

Oh, and it feels ok to the hand, a little bit scratchy, but not bad by any means.

In the end I had to remove a large bucket full of it all in, as they were piling it up high!

This shot shows how well it can hold burrows, that was about 1 1/2 weeks in, so their probably was some hay in it too by then, nonetheless I'm surprised it held. It held for a couple of days, and they then (sadly! ) filled it back in.

Oh, I shall be trying Aubiose next, which is also a hemp bedding. I've got no complaints about the Hempbed, but the Aubiose I can buy locally with just a 10 min drive, hence it will only cost me £9.75 plus a teeny bit of fuel, oh and it's a 20 kg bale!

[betty]

Great looking tunnels there!

[Markpd]

I can't believe that one above held up! I was soo hoping it would collapse when one of them was on top! Lol, does that make me evil!?

They've left that one filled in now anyway, although they've undermined the house which has slowly sunk!

Oh and I had to remove another bucket full! I wonder how big the nest is in there!??

[Markpd]

A little update, since that 1st lot of bedding I've since used Aubios, primarily because I can buy it locally, so no shipping costs and they're bigger bales (20kg).
Despite both beddings being Hemp, it seems the Aubios doesn't hold tunnels as well, and I'm pretty certain it wouldn't have held up like the Hempbed did in that photo 16/8. Odd really.
IIRC the 1st Aubios bale was £9, last one was £12, still cheap, but it's shrunk the gap from the Hempbed. So that and the tunnelling issue means I'll buy Hempbed next time, see if it really is better!

[nycgerbillover]

My vets told me hemp is too organic for gerbils. Two of my gerbils (and really one primarily) have allergies. I'm glad hemp works for you but if you see some red noses, it might be the hemp. I really liked it myself but it just didn't work for my babies. I use Small Pet Select Unbleached White Paper Bedding in the allergic tank and Carefresh in the non-allergic tank.

[Markpd]

Hmm, that's odd as AFAIK hemp is meant to be hypo-allergenic, I'll have to look into that again. [update] Well a quick search didn't show me anything about gerbils allergies to it, but apparently it certainly can be to people, so I guess it could to gerbils too.
Btw what the vet said doesn't really make sense, how can you have too organic? Do you know what they meant?

One thing I do know for sure though, is that at least 1 variant of it is in their natural habitat, are you sure it was the hemp your gerbils reacted to?

My boys seem to be ok with the hemp anyway, no red noses that I've seen .

I originally was going to get Aspen, but I certainly found that a small number of gerbils are allergic to that.

[betty]

Yes, I haven't heard anything untoward about hemp either - so maybe it was a bad batch or something?

As with you - I have often heard people switching AWAY from aspen for various allergy or 'too dusty' reasons.


Do keep us updated with your little guys though - and anything else anyone hers about hemp - update it here.

[Scott]

Just wanted to add to what Markpd said: how can something be "too organic"? Related to farming methods, organic means it's produced without the use of chemical fertilizers, pesticides, or other artificial agents. How can something be "too" much that?

[Markpd]

My last bale of Ecoshiv has turned out to be very dusty , bought it earlier this year, used the last of it on a recent bedding change which confirmed it.

Has anyone else found that?

[Thea]

Nope I haven't experienced that with Ecoshiv - shame though are you going to continue using it? I really like Ecoshiv but I guess there's always a risk that something like that will happen.

[Markpd]

Hmm, interesting, well if other people haven't either, then I'll try another bale, maybe I just got a bad one??

gerbilord and anyone else

[gerbilord]

Sorry to hear that, shame. I haven’t used ecoshiv for a while (theres a local supplier of aubiose near me so it’s cheaper) but I never experienced any problems with it when I used it. Maybe it was just a bad batch..?

[Thea]

I would think it would be a bad batch. One thing I didn't say though is that my first bag of it seemed a bit damp which was odd, it was fine after a couple of hours but I remember on opening being a bit unsure. Apart from that mine have been fine.

[Markpd]

Interesting to hear, I'll probably give it another go then.

I have used Aubiose, but I stopped as it didn't make tunnels very well (without adding lots of extra stuff).
Btw, I reckon my new 7ft tank will use a whole bale! lol