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Old 07-12-2020, 11:36 AM   #1
Otaku
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Default Substrate

I know this topic has come up frequently over the years but, well, here's another.

Prices are constantly on the up, and I suspect the pandemic has only worsened the price hikes.

I currently use Hugro Hemp in one half and Kaytee Clean & Cozy white with hand stripped kitchen towel for extra burrow support, but I spend hours picking apart the compressed clumps and it's really tedious. I could leave it clumpy, or expand my horizons.

I have been considering teabag bedding, with 20kg for £25 seemingly a good deal, but having googled kg to cubic inches it doesn't seem so good after all. Moreover, I really want to make changes to my boys cage by attempting a natural setup, so I'd rather go with a more natural colour (such as brown or green).

So Kaytee has a natural colour, but I will have to resist separating even the smallest of clumps, or maybe Small Pet Select's soft paper bedding.

So kaytee is typically £23 for an 85lt bag, while SPS soft paper bedding 52l (compressed, with an alleged 178 usable liters) with a 113l bag of Aspen shavings is £57.47.

So I am faced with kg, liters, cubic inches and confusion! Which of the three offers better value?
I also wonder if all paper bedding needs to be picked apart (or loosely separated if I can muster the discipline)?

I am not concerned about absorbency and odour control because (luckily) my boy pees in his litter trays, with only occasional accidents.

Apologies for asking, it's just that quality seems to fluctuate (or deteriorate as seemed to be the case of Fitch) and options seem to become available (and unavailable) over time.

Any advice is most welcome, as are accounts of personal experience using any of the substrates mentioned.

Thank you for reading my post, I hope this is useful for more than just myself!
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Old 07-12-2020, 11:51 AM   #2
AmityvilleHams
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Default Re: Substrate

I would personally go with Small Pet Select's paper bedding and hemp mixed. Aspen and wood in general can and often do end up causing allergic reactions with hamsters unfortunately so if you experienced that you would end up wasting quite a bit of bedding which ultimately leads to money being lost - and you also don't always see allergic reactions right away, some show up months later.

That being said, SPS paper bedding is extremely high quality virgin fiber and dye free pure paper unlike Clean & Cozy or similar products. It isn't the cheapest option, but it is worth it. Being able to get Aubiose or a similar high quality pure hemp in bulk could potentially help keep the cost down though with minimal likelihood of allergic reactions(but be careful of many other hemp brands - some are not pure hemp and can have harmful additives like citronella).

Tea bag bedding has been considered and will remain an unsafe and therefore unsuitable product. It sounds great in theory, but you end up risking bits of plastic getting ingested as well as potential contamination from dyes, tea, and other things that should generally be avoided.
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Old 07-12-2020, 12:06 PM   #3
LunaTheHamster1
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Default Re: Substrate

Have you considered Megazorb? It is approx £8 from an equestrian shop - if you pay postage anywhere from £13-£15. If I remember it is an 85 ltr bag

I think i paid £19 for my last bag of Aubiose, that was including postage, again cheaper from an equestrian shop.

As Amyityville states I would avoid Teabag bedding, the majority of teabags are made with some sort of plastic included in the production, so unless you can narrow down which teabag factory the materials are coming from it is not worth the risk.

You didn't state the price of the soft paper bedding but online I saw it was £40.68 for the 178litre , so that would be your most economical from the sounds of it.
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Old 07-12-2020, 01:23 PM   #4
Otaku
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Default Re: Substrate

AmityvilleHams: Thank you for your advice! I had either read on one supplier page or heard on a review that the teabag bedding was from offcuts and not from used teabags themselves however, your warning does make me question the source of the materials so I'll scrub that off the list.
I also really appreciate your warning against Aspen substrate. As a safe type of wood shaving I read 'Aspen' often but allergy warning ring alarm bells. It's certainly better to be safe than sorry so I will eliminate that option too.
As for the hemp bedding, I didn't realise that. Looking at the hugro bag it says '100% plant-based', not '100% hemp'... a real eye opener!

Luna: Thank you for replying! I used to use Megazorb for my rabbit's litter tray. It was soft and light, but it had a slight smell and could be dusty, particularly toward the bottom of the bag. For that reason I am hesitant to use it for my hamster as he has to live on/in the substrate. Additionally, he is a long-haired Syrian so I fear it might get tangled in his fluffy butt, which isn't ideal as he is an absolute sweetheart but not keen on handling, so mummy helping him would be stressful.
There are 20kg bales of Aubiose on ebay for £20 including shipping. Is that a fair price? It's so hard to compare when some are in liters and others in kg.
Apologies for not pricing the SPS paper bedding alone, the mixed bedding pack seemed a good deal until Amity said that Aspen can cause allergies. But yes, the 52l compressed/178l usable volume is £40.68. The fact that Kaytee only shows the 'usable volume' made it difficult to compare - I suppose because it is supposed to expand x 3 I simply need to divide the usable volume by 3. (I dislike how vague it can be as it allows companies to mislead customers because they have not explicitly stated anything.)

It sounds like SPS soft paper bedding is the way to go.

Thank you both so much for your input! I shall follow up with a review, including a comparison with Kaytee C&C and images.
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Old 07-12-2020, 01:57 PM   #5
LunaTheHamster1
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Default Re: Substrate

Yes that sounds about right for the Aubiose, I found that it seems to go further than the megazorb (although more expensive) just seems to be more compacted down, expands a bit.
I have had 2 long haired hamsters, both used megazorb, the only time it seems to have got in their long coat is when it is fresh, but they have managed to groom it out themselves(it's just in the very end of the fur) but I do get where you are coming from.

The problem with the tea bag bedding is that the plastic is used in the process of sealing the teabags, so if you are getting offcuts there is no way of knowing what bits have plastic in and what bits don't.
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Old 07-12-2020, 03:50 PM   #6
Otaku
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That's a really good point Luna!

I might go back to megazorb for my boy depending on our experience with the Small Pet Select bedding. I figured I should take the plunge with this bedding because there may be others with the same questions as I, so I have splurged. It's an expensive purchase but I know it will last absolutely ages as I never do a full cage clean - I pick up handfuls of bedding and sniff it. Anything that doesn't smell (which is most of it) goes back in and is topped up with fresh substrate (but I put it in a plastic tub, take it in the garden, and shake it to rid it of as much dust particles as I can). This massive bale may well see him through to the end of his life (he will be 8 months old on the 14th).

I want to encourage him to burrow, which he still doesn't! I am certain I need deeper substrate which is why I want something that isn't so labour intensive in terms of separating the little bits of bedding, so I can pack a mound of bedding in his cage from the get go rather than working on it bit by bit every evening. (I need to upload photos of his cage because I built a new DIY... well, dad did, I just forked out a lot of money on materials.)
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Old 07-12-2020, 05:27 PM   #7
EmmaAndChester
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Default Re: Substrate

Have you looked into Allspan? I'm not familiar with using paper based substrates, so I wouldn't know if you were getting your moneys worth. But Allspan is usually easily accessibly in many European pet shops; it's very low dust (it's also marketed specifically for horses with allergies, so there's that!) & holds burrows brilliantly compared to many other substrates (like hemp). It's spruce shavings; so 100% safe for hamsters! Many hamsters I kept on hemp never burrowed; it's very poor at burrow stability, even when mixed with plenty of hay - so if you were looking to encourage burrowing, I'd recommend giving Allspan a go.

Chipsi classic is 70% spruce (30% fir); another option, but I think if allergies are a concern for you, then the Allspan would be the better bet.
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Old 07-12-2020, 06:16 PM   #8
Otaku
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Hi Emma, thank you for the recommendation! I had a quick look and couldn't see a UK supplier - there's a seller on ebay but they're base din Germany so the shipping drives up the price.
As for Chipsi and allergies, my boy doesn't have any allergies but I have hayfever so it may be problematic for me (, he's my roomie). I'll have to look it up and see if it'll be a problem for me.
Thank you for the suggestions Emma, they suit my intentions for a more natural theme and the Chipsi is available from zooplus so it's easier to source and cheap enough to trial and provide yet another texture for enrichment.
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Old 07-13-2020, 04:11 AM   #9
Yanathehammie
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Default Re: Substrate

Hiya! I’m kinda in a love-hate relationship with Megazorb. It is super cheap, has a nice natural colour and is one of the best beddings for burrowing. Although, I don’t think that I will ever buy it again due to the amount of dust. Every time I take out the bedding in Yana’s cage and put it back in again I have to wear a mask to cope with the dust (I am not asthmatic). Also, when I pour the bedding in, dust is immediately seen on the sides of the cage. When I was using it, I was so worried that the dust was too much for Yana so I choose to switch to Fitch instead.
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Old 07-13-2020, 11:08 AM   #10
Otaku
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Yeah, I was cautious about Megazorb for the dust, but even Kaytee C&C is surprisingly dusty for a bedding claiming to be 99.9% dust-free. After separating it I put it in a Samla box and shake it out in the garden to make most of the particles fly away.

The SPS bedding should arrive tomorrow so I'll be sure to cover dustiness in my review. (^_~)
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