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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